The Nest Review: New York to London Made Boring

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The Nest is a movie where nothing really happens. One of the most boring movies I have seen.

What Happens in The Nest? 

The Nest begins in America, with Allison and Rory. The little family of four is happily living in New York, when Rory gets a business opportunity from one of his former employers back in London. Although they have moved 4 times in 10 years, Rory feels this opportunity will be life-changing and is too good to pass up. He is also ready to move back home. It takes a while, but Allison is finally persuaded to leave her extended family and move to London. 

Rory arrives in London shortly before the family does and begins to get their affairs in order. He had promised his wife and children a large house, and many other riches and upon their arrival, this looks to be fulfilled. They move into a very large country manor, with space for a stable for Allison and a soccer pitch for Benjamin. Rory is reunited with all his friends from London, and life seems to be looking up for everyone involved.

As time goes on money begins to tighten for the family, as they live lavishly without the income to match. As a result, Rory begins to feel the pressure from himself and his wife to fix their urgent money worries. This combination of internal and external pressure begins to break Rory’s mental state. Will Rory be able to prove to his wife that leaving her family and life behind was worth the move, or will he end up worse than before?

Who are the Characters in The Nest?

Rory is one of the protagonists in the film and on the surface, he seems like a good-natured and hard-working dad, but once you are past the surface one can see there are many warts. Rory grew up poor and due to this, he has spent his entire life trying to escape his childhood by becoming rich and successful.

Although he does try to work for this success, he spends his money quite often (even when he doesn’t have the necessary funds), he makes many risky business deals, he lies, and he exaggerates how much money and wealth he has. He proves to be selfish by not worrying to much about his family and never taking responsibility for anything.

Allison is the other protagonist, and we see that she enjoys her life in New York with her job and proximity to her family. They seem to have a good life. When Rory decides to move the family to England for his work, her world is turned upside down as she and her kids are uprooted to a manor in Surrey.

While at first Allison tries to make the best of things in this new country, as she moves her horse to England with her (she is a riding instructor) and she tries to trust her husband, the constant changes begin to take a toll on her. She begins to go crazy in the manor, not trusting Rory, getting into fights with Rory and her daughter, as she and her family turn into different people and her marriage crumbles.

The Nest Review

This movie is quite plain. It has an interesting horror/thriller feel that lasts almost the entire movie, but nothing ever comes of it. The director, Sean Durkin, does a wonderful job of maintaining a strong tension throughout the entire movie. While that tense feeling is present for the entire movie, it didn’t hold my attention for the first 45 minutes.

The character development that occurs at the beginning lacks any kind of hook to grab the viewer’s attention.  The back 45 minutes are more attention-grabbing, and although there isn’t much that occurs, it does a good job of keeping the viewer’s attention.

The acting is very good, Jude Law portrays the ambitious, greedy husband quite well, and Carrie Coon puts on a great performance with the vast range of emotions. That is by far the most impressive thing about these two performances, the vast range of emotions that both actor and actress were asked to portray. This is quite an emotional movie, and they do a good job of adding to the tone.

While I enjoyed the acting, I didn’t enjoy the characters or the writing. I found the characters to be two-dimensional and very predictable. This goes for the writing as well, the dialogue seems slow and forced. I found the two children to be total filler, with very few lines or impactful moments on the film. They could have been written much better, and incorporated in such a way that could have better developed the plot or even some of the other characters.

My biggest issue with this movie is the ending. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I found the ending was very open-ended and lacked the closure I was looking for. It left me looking for another 10 minutes of the movie at the end, with no real ending occurring.

The Nest is not bad, but it also isn’t good. I found the negatives to outweigh the positives and I probably wouldn’t go see it again. I’d rather watch Malcolm and Marie, but if you find yourself enjoying drama movies or Jude Law, this one might be worth a try.