TIFF 2022 Day 5: ‘The Good Nurse,’ ‘Good Night Oppy,’ and ‘Decision to Leave’

By Jake Skubish and Peter Coutu

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JS: Our first three-movie day! Screening #1 was The Good Nurse, a Netflix drama based on a true crime story starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne. The Monday morning crowd was decidedly more elderly than the debaucherous crowds over the weekend, and Peter and I felt surrounded by our kind of people (old and grumpy). We initially bought tickets to The Good Nurse because some other movies we wanted to see in the morning sold out, so we did not have high expectations.

So what a pleasant surprise that The Good Nurse was one of the very best films of the festival! It’s a tight and entertaining thriller, alongside some incisive commentary about evils personal and systemic. Terrific performances from Redmayne and Chastain, who should both firmly be in the Oscar conversation.

PC: I do love old crowds. Always have. And yet, I did have to quiet some rage in the ticket line as it slowed to a halt because people couldn’t turn their brightness up to scan their tickets. TIFF should consider requiring festival-goers over 60 to bring paper tickets. Let’s keep everything moving. 

I did love the movie, though. I think I had predicted giving it 2.5 or 3 stars beforehand, based on seeing some commentary calling it slow. And I guess it was slow, but never boring. Really stellar performances by Redmayne and Chastain — I don’t think the film works with anything less. 

Q&A for The Good Nurse

JS: After the movie Chastain and Redmayne joined the stage for a Q&A along with Amy Loughren, the real-life nurse whom Chastain portrays in the film, which made for a very interesting conversation. We have seen a lot of stars at these post-film Q&A interviews, but I haven’t been starstruck by anyone as much as Chastain, not even close. She’s just such a wonder. I was smitten.

PC: I was still more starstruck by Daniel Craig, who is peerless. But Chastain had quite the presence. Also, it’s nice to see a true story film enjoyed by the real-life person who inspired it. 

JS: After the Q&A we headed over to Himalayan Kitchen, a Tibetan restaurant recommended by our dear friend Noah, who staked his whole reputation on the quality of the restaurant’s momos. We took the streetcar over to the restaurant, an elite mode of public transportation that we should implement across the U.S. Thankfully, the honey chili momos I ordered at the restaurant were delicious, and Noah’s reputation remains intact.

Peter enjoying Himalayan Kitchen

PC: The restaurant also had some of the best fries I’ve ever tasted in my life. Just a pitch-perfect texture, perfect snap on the outside while still being light and fluffy on the inside. A strong recommendation from Noah. 

JS: After lunch we went back to the festival for a screening of Good Night Oppy, a documentary about the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. (Tough beat for Spirit — getting absolutely dunked on by being omitted from the title.) Things once again got off to a disastrous start at Scotiabank: Uncomfortable seats, a chaotic system for herding us into the theater, our seats becoming marked as reserved after we already sat down in them. If we return to this festival, you better believe you won’t see our faces inside Scotiabank Theatre.

But this time around, the movie was a rousing success. Oppy is an emotionally uplifting story about the glory of perseverance, about the pursuit of knowledge inspiring future generations, and about how fun it is to say “Oppy.” It made me tear up and even made Peter, a typically cold, heartless machine, break out into loud sobs inside the theater.

PC: I’ll be honest, I was bracing for disaster for this flick. Nothing to do with NASA or Oppy or the director, but rather the setting. Scotiabank is just simply the worst theater in the entire festival by far. Removes all the magic. But somehow, Oppy brought it back anyway. At this point, it may be my favorite flick. (I’m not dignifying Jake’s misleading tales with a response.) 

JS: Following Oppy we rushed over to Ramen Isshin, where Peter and I devoured the black sesame tan tan ramen. Delicious, although the real highlight was the mango pudding, a perfect 10/10 dessert. Each bite gloriously melted in my mouth, and Peter was concerned my groaning would cause a scene inside the restaurant. Terrific meal.

PC: I would say it did cause a scene. Hard to blame him, though. I snuck a couple of tastes and it was just top notch. The ramen wasn’t half bad, either. 

JS: At 9 p.m. we walked back over to the Princess of Wales Theatre for a late-night screening of the latest film from Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave. On the way to the theater I nailed a guess of our step count for the day within 40 steps, a skill I repeated over and over throughout the trip. It may be my best skill. All that walking made us pretty beat by the 9:45 p.m. start time, but we powered through.

Park Chan-wook introducing Decision to Leave

Decision to Leave, a police procedural doubling as a forbidden love story between a detective and his suspect, did not reach the same heights as Chan-wook’s best (Oldboy, The Handmaiden), and the story was meandering and unfocused. Still, it contained the director’s typical visual depth, as well as a terrific performance by Tang Wei. A solid flick, though I wouldn’t rate it as high as the critical consensus.

PC: I wouldn’t say Jake has wowed me a lot on this trip — at least not in positive ways. But his continued step guessing has blown me away. Truly remarkable. Decision to Leave is the most disappointing movie of the festival so far. Jake got me too excited, practically promising a 5/5 rating. A pretty but disjointed and poorly paced thriller is what I got.

JS: We stumbled back to the apartment and hit the hay by 1 a.m., worn out by a long day of watching films. We have just one day left in the festival — it has really flown by!