The Nest
Summary:
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 they ever moved?
Characters:
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. Though 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 exaggerates about how much money and wealth he does have to fit in, and he proves to be selfish by mainly not worrying to much about his family and by never taking responsibility. 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 in fights with Rory and her daughter as her and her family turn into different people and her marriage crumbles.
Sebastian: 6.5/10
This is not the movie I expected to see when I walked into the theatre as from what I had seen I was expecting a horror film. Instead I got a decent thriller movie and that is the word I would use, decent. To start with what I liked about the film I thought that it had some nice shots and that overall, the cinematography was good as well as the editing created some tense scenes. I also thought that the atmosphere of the film was well done between the score and the way they made the manor feel empty; it gave off a creepy vibe. The acting was quite good with Jude Law who played Rory and Carie Coon who played Allison being real highlights as they sold the marital drama and issues and they really sold their parts well. Jude Law nailed a man who basically was faking it until he made it. Carie Coon sold a good mother who through a series of events is driven crazy by her surroundings. I also thought that the story had a decent premise and I felt that the drama presented in the film was pretty real.
On the other side of things not much happens in this movie. The film really doesn’t go anywhere and the story itself seems to meander about not exactly staying focused on its main plot. Though I said the plot was intriguing I do not necessarily think it was amazingly executed because I could not always understand why characters did certain things that they did. The kids in the film I think were wasted as they were less characters and more so plot devices used to see the effects of the parents’ decisions. The film never seemed to fully delve into either the thriller or horror genre either it was like they tried to implement elements but they could never commit with many moments where it looked like it was going full on creepy thriller and then decided to not. My biggest problem with this film is that there is no resolution as there is all this build up and I was wondering how they were going to wrap it up and then they just don’t. I feel like nothing was solved from the conflict throughout.
All in all, this is not an exciting movie per say and while I still don’t like the ending it has some great acting and enough thriller elements that I would recommend it in the end. Check it out yourself and see what you think.
Austin: 5.8/10
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 begin 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 view attentive. I did enjoy the acting.
The acting is very good, Jude Law portrays the ambitious, greedy husband quite well, and Carrie Coon does great 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 were 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. The 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 lacking 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.
This movie is not bad, it has its positives and negatives. I found the negatives to outweigh the positives and I probably wouldn’t go see it again. But if you find yourself enjoying drama movies, and Jude Law, this one might be worth a try.
Nathanyal: 5.5/10
The Nest was an interesting movie, if it can even be called a movie. This movie follows that story of an American family who moves to London for a new opportunity. Before I devolve into the weaknesses of this movie, I must first explain the areas that the movie did well. For one, the acting and the cinematography were good. The lead parents expressed their roles well and the scenes were shot beautifully now. The development of the characters was also enjoyable to watch, as each character fell into their own sense of madness and despair, while also providing evidence for themes of family, wealth, and greed.
Now onto the cons. With an intro of having a family move to another country, you would think that there would be a story associated with it, but that is far from the truth. Instead of any actual progress besides each character descending into madness, the plot stayed stagnant throughout the whole movie. There was no rising action, climax, or denouement. There was no antagonist or even a central conflict. So essentially, the whole movie was an introduction with no progress. Another issue about the plot are the horror elements sprinkled throughout the movie that would make you think that it would become a horror movie. The movie takes place in an old mansion, the camera pans out into the darkness and shows some shadows in the corners, mansion doors are opened after previously being locked, and even a horse gets partially unearthed. All these elements would create a wonderful horror movie. Instead the movie ends abruptly, and nothing seems to have been resolved.
All in all, The Nest, was an interesting motion picture on a big screen. Besides the acting and the cinematography, nothing else really stands out about this movie. While having no plot and misleading elements of horror, this movie is stuck in a weird limbo space: interesting idea, with questionable plot. The only people I could recommend this to are those who wish to watch characters fall into madness.
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Durkin, Sean, director. The Nest. Elevation Pictures, 2020.
