One can look at The Nest in different ways. On the one hand, you might argue that it's a 1980s drama that brims with potential but ultimately peters out. On the other hand, you might counter that it captures human behaviour subtly and compellingly, and is mature enough to avoid the simplistic. I'm in the latter camp. This is, I think, a really good film.
I was drawn to it partly by the presence in the cast of Jude Law. His raffish, unreliable charm is, in his best performances, utterly convincing and never more so than here. He is Rory O'Hara, a charismatic trader with a gift of the gab. But it rapidly becomes clear that he's economical with the truth and before long we start to wonder if he's a full-on fantasist.
Rory is married to Allison (Carrie Coon), an equestrian trainer. They have a son together (Ben) and she also has a teenage daughter (Sam). They are living in New York and it all seems pretty idyllic. But warning signs flash when, at the start of the film, Rory says he wants to move back to Britain to pursue a great opportunity and we learn that he is temperamentally restless - and in charge of the family finances.
They do move to England, and take a tenancy of a baronial manor. Rory rejoins his old boss Arthur (a terrific cameo by Michael Culkin) but the children are unsettled. Carrie Coon is excellent and there's alos a great cameo from Anne Reid, whom I still think of as Val Barlow in Coronation Street. At different times the film teeters on the edge of psychological suspense, satire, family drama, horror, and the supernatural. We expect something terrible is going to happen...well, no spoilers here. It's definitely worth watching The Nest for yourself.
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