The Nest has been anticipated with great excitement since director Sean Durkin's first film, the striking Martha, Marcy May Marlene, now ten years old, is highly regarded as a work of great subtlety and precision. That same precision carries on here. There is clearly not an accidental shot in the film. Everything is exact and exacting. That doesn't, however, make it much fun.
Of course not every film is meant to be fun. And since this is a film about a marriage crisis, fun is definitely not on the agenda. At all.
Law is a wide-boy financial trader, Coon is his horse trainer wife. They have a couple of kids, one hers, one theirs. But Jude's work life seems to be going less than well in America so he drags the family back to England to "start again". He reckons he can get really rich there and immediately buys a country mansion, sends the kids to the best schools and generally tears through money to bolster his perceived status.
It's no surprise that when his one big deal falls apart - he does seem to bank his entire fortune on one long-shot idea which seems less than sensible or realistic - things in the marriage get strained. Simultaneously bad things happen to her favourite horse, leading to a slow-motion emotional train crash. Meanwhile the daughter has turned all snarky and the young boy seems so fragile that you seriously doubt for his safety. It's often the innocent who suffer in films such as this - think The Ice Storm or many others - allowing for parental redemption...
Good points: the film is directed like a horror film. Spooky music, spooky camera, strange things bumping in the night (what did happen to that horse?). This is an interesting approach. Especially with the big slightly threatening house it keeps you expecting something supernatural or genuinely horrible. On the downside, there is a slight feeling of disappointment when nothing of that sort actually occurs.
Also very good is the music which presents variations of jazz and is continually unsettling.
Also very good is the acting. All the actors are very subtle and serious. Jude is his usual slightly irritating self but as the status and money obsessed husband I guess that's intentional. The kids are good.
In fact it's all good. From the camerawork to the music to the script to the cast it's all top notch. It's also very steadily paced and not much happens. Many descriptions call this a thriller. Nope. It's a slow very serious drama. It's a minutely-observed, unflinching study of a marriage falling apart. Make sure you're in the right mood before you start.
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