Yes Nurse! No Nurse!
Reel Affirmations 2003
Ja Zuster! Nee Zuster!
Review by Alex MacLennan (user ID#17)
Rating: 
(5 out of 5) [Critic’s Pick!]
Sunday, 10/19/2003, 7:00 PM
Feature presentation, $9 at Lincoln Theatre
Dutch with English subtitles
THIS BIG, SUGARY gumdrop of a movie is chock full of musical numbers, colorful outfits, and eccentric performances that conspire, beginning with the exuberant opening credits, to offer a flat-out pleasurable, original, and unexpected treat.
Fans of Chicago, Down with Love, and especially Moulin Rouge should flock to the fluffy story of Nurse Klivia, Jet, Bertus and Bobby, the Engineer, the Hairdresser, nasty Boordevol, and Gerit, the handsome thief.
The movie’s plot (twisty and extraneous as it is) involves at least three romances, a threatened eviction, a series of robberies, and a pill that change personalities from bad to good. One romantic interlude includes the smoothly muscled thief, in the tightest of tighty whities, singing on the rooftop to his pigeons and then his girl. It’s like a Pierre et Giles photo come to life on the set of Little Shop of Horrors.
The gay plotline may be small, but the gay sensibility is overwhelming, as is the sheer fun of watching this film. Yes Nurse! No Nurse! enjoys the benefits of a respectable budget, judiciously (and joyously) spent. Carnivals, circuses, and parades regularly move down Klivia’s street, and the characters swing into song and dance without fail. There are more than one moments of true beauty, plenty of laughs, and a surprisingly moving denouement.
Yes Nurse! No Nurse! is a sweet, funny film that swirls and delights. Be warned — you might just spend days singing the chorus in your head, and you will definitely be enchanted from beginning to end.
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