Ah, family life. As The Nest Pontificates, it is a serene, calm place where you can reset emotionally to face the wor…PSYCH! Not in the 1980s Capitalism on Steroids Era. And not when the Martha Marcy May Marlene director is telling your tale. But hey, at least it will be hella interesting and dripping with tension as the seams tear.
The O’Hara family is your run of the mill upper middle class Reganomics family. Allison (Carrie Coon) raises horses on the family’s large estate in the burbs as well as her two kids Ben (Charlie Shotwell) and Sam (Oona Roche), who seem happy enough. Rory, a UK expat who married into the family, is getting the itch of stasis seeping in. Feeling underutilized, he convinces his family to move to a bigger house in the UK, so he can take a bigger job in an office much higher up to get what he wants. Sounds perfect, right?
The way the setup goes, it’s not perfect obviously. Sean Durkin, the writer/director, has a steady subtle hand showing how gradually things fall apart. The first 30 minutes or so set up the daily routine of the family, showing how comfortable they are, so they let those little irritants brush off. The move to London takes away those comforts. Now, a great family underneath would use the love they’ve grown to pull out of a tailspin. But there’s no love in the O’Hara family: it’s all a show, empty and hollow. So each individual family member does what makes them happy, regardless how the other family members feel. Rory uses all his effort to sell whatever he is doing. Allison spends more time with her horses. Sam rebels more openly and callously, and poor Ben retreats to his room.
So that 30 minute bliss earlier? It starts eroding in London; little things like Rory giving Allison tea in the morning stop as he works later nights; Allison forgetting to pick up the kids at school, etc. With no empathy holding the family together, Durkin then starts escalating the tension little by little, increasing the dread as more time goes on in this untenable situation. Each family member, frustrated and pissed off at each other, starts dropping the sweet facade. Rory takes bigger risks at work and openly challenges his partners. When he tries to bring Allison in to help, she refuses to put up with his BS anywhere. Allison’s horse time makes her neglect her kids, which unleashes Sam to grow more and more reckless with teenage temptations like irritating musical tastes, beer, boys and such. And poor Ben’s corner grows darker and more compact as the story goes on. The climax gets a little loopy, but it sticks the landing at the end, stopping in a brief, but uneasy, respite. Tough sledding, but very watchable thanks to Durkin’s deft hand and brilliant turns from the smarmy Jude Law and the complex Carrie Coon.
The Nest could have been a sweet bird’s nest, filled with joy and a loving family. Instead it’s a bee’s nest, repeatedly prodded, forcing the bees to attack. There’s no crazy plot swings or explosions, just a slow motion car crash, taking apart a supply side economics family. The only thing missing was Jude Law wearing a Reagan pin on his stunning evening wear.