Rent The Nest (2020)

An over-hyped realistic movie that lacks depth and pace - The Nest review by Philip in Paradiso

In the 1980s, Rory O'Hara (Jude Law), who is English, and his American wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), live a very comfortable middle-class life in New York City with their children, Ben and Sam. But Rory is ambitious and restless. He feels the next step in his career must take him back to London, where he can work in the City again. (In the past, he was a very successful trader in London.) So, the entire family moves to a splendid mansion in Surrey. But things do not go entirely according to plan...

Jude Law is a good actor but it is Carrie Coon whose acting and personality steal the show. The story is narrated in realistic mode. It is not a thriller. It is not even, really, a sentimental drama. It is a 'social drama', you could stay, about ambition and greed (Rory's) and what it can do to a man and to his immediate family. The story line is remarkably simple and rather predictable. Mostly, there is no tension. It is all a bit flat. You are always waiting for something memorable and big to happen, and, every time, somehow, it is a bit of a damp squib. I am not too sure what is wrong with the film - overall, it works - but one thing is, in my view, absolutely clear: the characters lack depth (except perhaps Allison) and are not really interesting; the story lacks texture and relevance and is not really interesting; so, to conclude, it is not a bad film, but it is not a very interesting movie either. Somehow, it is not necessary.

The film has been hyped up way beyond what it actually means or does. Not that much actually happens in the first 60 mins (and it is about 1 hr 45 mins long!). In my personal opinion, it is not half as interesting as many commentators have claimed. I was disappointed: I expected much better - something more riveting and more complex. If you think about a film such as 'The Wolf of Wall Street', for instance, you realize that 'The Nest' is not in the same category: It is in Economy as opposed to Business class. Give it a miss.

Excellent Social Drama - The Nest review by GI

This is a social and relationship drama that is very riveting and exudes an atmosphere that makes it really interesting and at times a little creepy. But don't be put off by that because this is really very good and surprising. Jude Law plays Rory, an English entrepreneur and commodity broker living in New York with his wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), her teenage daughter, Sam (Oona Roche) and their young son Ben (Charlie Shotwell). He's very successful but one day tells the family he has accepted a job back in London which will make them all rich. They relocate to a large yet dreary Surrey country house and soon the family structure begins to unravel. Mercurial, self-obsessed and overly ambitious Rory leads the family in a path to emotional destruction. It's a powerful and very well told story, set in the 1980s although it presents it's setting lightly, but allows it to remind the audience of the days of 'yuppies'. As Allison begins to discover Rory's lies and deceptions she is faced with her children falling into despair and the wrong crowd. This is really a very good watch. Jude Law and Carrie Coon are exceptional and Anne Reid has a powerful cameo as Rory's mum in a scene which reveals a lot behind Rory's personality. Recommended.

Family horror show without ghosts - The Nest review by PD

This one's got all the trappings of a horror film - a cavernous old manor in the Surrey countryside with heavy wood panelling and enough space for a family of four to get lost inside it. And indeed, the place immediately creeps out Benjamin the younger of the two children, who seeks sanctuary with his older teenage sister Samantha at night until she kicks him out, then sprints through the darkened hallways to his room like something’s going to drag him off into the shadows if he’s not fast enough. But the horror on show is of an altogether different kind namely, the slow implosion of a family unit. And added to the mix is a horse, Richmond, a gorgeous black beast who just isn’t the same after he’s transported from New York to England - the scenes involving the horse and owner Allison (the superb Carrie Coon) are perhaps the film's strongest, although all four of the family members experience their own personal miseries.

Jude Law's Rory is a fast-talking commodities broker with a taste for luxuries he can’t afford (it’s the ’80s) and has been maintaining this facade for so long that he can't even be honest with himself about it, let alone anyone else. Yet Allison doesn’t confront Rory often, having served as co-conspirator and enabler in her husband’s games for a while now, but the way that Allison hoards and hides cash hints at how many times they’ve flamed out before and how she expects things to end up now. They’re well- matched as two people who’ve been drained by years of pretending to be something they’re not, chasing a dream they couldn’t entirely articulate, although Coon's performance for me is much the stronger. As a critique of a decade of consumerism, 'The Nest' is a little thin and predictable, but as a fable of familial dysfunction, it’s resonant and not a little frightening, without a ghost in sight.