The Nest; is it any good? Well Chris Stuckmann certainly thought so, enough to mention it in his video for the best movies of 2020; that’s a solid recommendation, and good enough for me to put The Nest on my agenda.
Written and directed by Sean Durkin, The Nest first depicts a family living a pleasant lifestyle in the U.S.A. But father and husband, Rory O’Hara (Jude Law), originally from England, tells his American wife Allison (Carrie Coon), that he’s increasingly unhappy state-side, and has an opportunity for a big payday if the family moves to London. Allison indicates that this will be the fourth time the family has moved in ten years, and this stop was meant to be their final destination; but after a disconcerting chat with her mother about who should worry about the finances in a marriage, Allison relinquishes, and the family moves to a bigger-than-necessary old mansion in Surrey. Pretty soon, the couple’s well-behaved children start acting out, and Allison can’t see that payday coming; she starts to worry how much she can really trust her husband’s intentions.
The first thing to notice about The Nest is an oldie, and I want to say seventies, aesthetic, through the sound design, scene transitions, credits and shot selection. I feel like Mia Farrow should be starring, or someone like Jack Torrance from The Shining should be lurking around the corner of this mansion at any given time, put it that way. At times, I actually double-checked Jude Law’s crow’s feet to prove to myself that I hadn’t stumbled upon a re-release of an older film, which is absurd, but it goes to show how convincingly The Nest exhibits stylised filmmaking nonetheless. The plot for the movie looks like it’s set around the seventies or eighties too, judging by the cars we see, which means that director Durkin has chosen to make a film that feels like a product of its time, instead of a modern-day period piece, and which also means the filmmaking acts less as a ‘portal’ to yesteryear and more like Doctor Who’s Tardis. With this in mind, and as you can problem tell from the movie’s synopsis before you, it’s pretty clear; I knew I should be unsettled by something in this movie, but for at least half of it, it’s uncertain as to what. Is it Jude Law’s husband or the house? Or both? Truth be told I enjoyed not knowing up to a point, but then I came like the Dave Matthews Band and asked the movie, ‘where are you going?’.
Honestly, I think the haunted house aspects are only there to keep the movie dribbling along with tension. Put bluntly, The Nest is really good for seventy-five percent of the time, when Allison and Rory, their strained relationship, and Rory’s tight façade, are the focus, but quick moments where Allison might be losing her mind, or doors might be opening up on their own, are a distraction from the peculiar family drama at hand, shot impeccably beautifully. The movie also takes other detours that don’t impact the story as strongly as I think the movie thinks they should; we are introduced to Rory’s mother, where she is asked to live with the family, but that is never brought up again. The children start having their own trouble adjusting to their new home, but they barely inform the main narrative, where I think, the daughter Sam (Oona Roche) finds her own way back on track in the end, but there’s no fruition or explanation as to where the young boy’s angst has truly been coming from. (The scene where son Benjamin (Charlie Shotwell) gets out of bed and takes off his pyjama pants continues to puzzle me. I could guess at what has happened, but I can’t see how it ultimately accounts for anything.) I wonder if there was a better way to show the children’s change in behaviour purely from Allison’s perspective, similarly to what Jennifer Lawrence’s character experiences in Mother!, helping build upon the suggestion that Allison might be becoming unstable, and that the house is frightening. But we see too much of everyone’s lives to ultimately believe any supernatural phenomenon is going down.
Then, I do not understand the deeper significance of the horse. Does it represent Allison’s fallen independence? Her intuition? It would take scholars smarter than me a lifetime to categorically explain it to me, I reckon. Additionally, there’s a theme of female subservience existing in the deep waters throughout this movie, where twice, daughter Sam would be shown overhearing adult expectations of a female’s role in marriage – I don’t think the theme is hit hard enough for it to be a prominent voice in the movie though; when Allison does take it up to her husband, it isn’t difficult, and it’s very clear that Rory is a nuisance. What I mean is, there’s really not enough grey area established to suggest that women shouldn’t be equal to their husbands, to indicate that Allison’s scepticism is out of place, or she is acting dangerously by doing what she does, and the drama comes from her figuring out how far her husband’s lies go, and navigating a way through it.
Ultimately, style can only account for so much and The Nest’s substance could have used course-correction. The acting is good; I’m probably a fair few behind the eight-ball when I admit I only just put together how often Jude Law plays a slimy gentleman, and I’m perhaps naively surprised that there’s so much work out there to put him in that category; especially since Tom Cruise takes all the closely associated ‘cocky-prick’ roles for his pay checks. Also, Carrie Coon is a worthy leading-lady; I very much enjoyed her presence. I reckon The Nest might rest all on that horse; that’s what I’m missing, and if I shared a deep connection understanding the symbolism of the horse, that could drastically lift my score. But without it, I’ll say this movie is interesting but I’ll keep it at arms-length, just like Rory’s co-worker wants with Rory and his fish-farming deal.
3.0
P.S. How about a minute for the best character in the movie; the cabbie who wants to address Rory’s confessions right between the eyes, and boots the bloke out of his taxi when he puts it all together. The cabbie only has a couple of minutes onscreen but he’s the coolest cat.
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