The Nest (2020) – Review

Perception and Reality; Family and Business; collide in Jude Law’s latest Drama/Thriller, ‘The Nest’.

Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Pope) stars as Rory O’Hara, an English-born businessman, trying to live the American dream. Complete with the pretty, blonde wife, Allison, played by Carrie Coon (Avengers: Infinity War, Gone Girl); her high school-aged daughter Samantha, played by Oona Roche; and their school-aged son, Ben, played by Charlie Shotwell; Rory appears every bit the success story. Good marriage, happy children, big home in the suburbs, complete with stable and horses; and set during the un-bridled optimism of the Reagan-era 80’s; appearances are idyllic and serene.

So, why would the head of an American upper middle-class nuclear family want to uproot all of their lives, and return to the land of his birth??!! Why, indeed.

Director Sean Durkin sets a deliberate pace, a slightly voyeuristic tone for this period piece. Static, locked off wide shots, purposefully framed and seen from a distance; we see a carefully constructed life/lie. Durkin uses long lenses, zoomed in; keeping the viewer carefully aloof, away from the action – as if looking in through a window, or from across the street.

Durkin contrasts Rory’s boundless energy and unfettered ideas of the possible, with a reticent family struggling to turn a house into a home, to find a new life in a foreign land. Almost manic displays of wealth and access, seen during loosely edited longer takes, emphasize the slowly growing disconnect between patriarch and family, between constructed reality and realized truth. Rory, the prodigal-son success story, projects status and wealth, the perfect picture for a wheeler-dealer in a cut-throat business world.

However, things are not always what they seem.

As each family member tries to settle into their new life, carefully constructed narratives begin to unravel. Even the new family horse, Richmond, struggles to adapt amongst the growing tumult. As complications mount, so does the suspense in this three-act film.

Rated-R and 107 minutes long, The Nest feels very much like a family drama actually shot during the early-mid 80’s, not just one set there. Durkin captures the look and feel of family dramas from that era, even using natural lighting for many of the scenes. If you like Independent/lower budget type films; and if you like family dramas from the 80’s, along the line of Terms of Endearment, and Kramer Versus Kramer, you will like this film.