Sean Durkin’s first feature film that he has directed since Martha Marcy May Marlene, a sobering and very compelling drama from 9 years ago, offers a similarly sobering drama with The Nest. A film that I frankly can’t stop thinking about and keeps revealing more and more of itself to me the more I think about it. To put it plainly I was searching for one, but I may have found the film that I will be most angry with come Oscar season if it fails to receive any nominations. For me The Nest is a lock for Actress, Actor, Writing and in a perfect world I’d comment Director and Picture also. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, for the film itself is a slow burn and a feature that only grows and grows in its power and drama before reaching its immensely effecting conclusion. 

NOTE: I wrote this review before the Oscar nominations. Now I'm just sad. 

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The Nest follows The O’Hara family as they relocate upon the business based whim of father Rory (Jude Law) back to England, his home country. A decision that isn’t rather well received by any of the family. Not by Oona Roche as daughter Sam, not by Charlie Shotwell as son Ben, and especially not by wife and mother Allison played by Carrie Coon. This feeling of unease around the movie is only solidified and unbearably brought to bear by the nature of Rory’s (and hence the family’s) financial struggles, the grand spooky manor house the family now inhabit and the ill health of the one thing keeping Allison relatively sane and at ease; her horse. Sean Durkin has written and directed with The Nest a film that takes great pleasure in repeatedly shifting the audience perspective on what we are watching, even at one point relishing in playing with the concept of depicting that the film we are watching may or may not be a horror film. But of course the horrors here aren’t ghosts or goblins, they are the most harrowing horrors we all know, that of greed, denial and loss. Durkin mounts tension and unfortunate situation on one another to create a truly unbearable climactic night that makes up the final forty or so minutes of the film. A riveting and dynamic climax that’s the perfect pay-off for the slow-build that we have watched up until that point. But one must understand that the languid pace of the first scenes in the film are certainly not dull and instead rather perfectly bring us into the world we are about to inhabit and the characters that are going to populate it for the time we spend there. Durkin subverts our expectations of genre repeatedly as aforementioned, at times with a sexual romance film as we depict the highs of what Rory and Allison’s relationship has seen before we met them, before a dramatic thriller when it comes to matters that reveal themselves to the family as the film continues, all the while maintaining this structure of family dread. The film too looks simply stunning, with a descent into darkness depicted visually by cinematographer Matyas Erdely aswell as in the narrative by Durkin. The film’s overall dread is ultimately solidified by Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) whose score plays with tones of dread and bass to create an unnerving atmosphere at all points punctuated frequently by moments of light piano to remind us of the beauty and subtlety at the core of the story.

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As I have noted a few times now, the film really is a terrific showcase for its performers with Coon and Law naturally stealing the show as our two leads, but with a sturdy and frequently brilliant ensemble cast bolstering the film, casting great talent in even the smallest moments of the film. It really is clear how much Durkin understands about how pivotal every moment and interaction in his film is. Roche and Shotwell as the O’Hara children for instance develop in the narrative and have many more silent moments highlighting their talent, Roche with her manic dancing and Shotwell with his deeply pained stillness. In the business world two further great performances can be found with Michael Culkin and Adeel Akhtar as formidable friends come possible foes for Law’s Rory to traverse, further adding to the tremendously crafted level of tension in the film. The film does too have two absolute standout single scene performances in the film, with Anne Reid showing up to offer a subtle and piercing performance as Rory’s mother and James Nelson-Joyce as an unnamed taxi driver possibly stealing the film in perhaps the most important and best scene in the film. This scene is also Law’s greatest work and his craft and elegance of character, balancing bravado with charm to deep anxiety leads to a performance about being performative where the character is constantly acting himself, leading to Law’s work to be depthful and simply fantastic to watch and enjoy. But frankly this is Coon’s film. Coon is so excellent in this film that I haven’t stopped raving about her since viewing the film. Durkin has clearly created a gem of a role, but Coon’s performance makes Allison one of the characters and performances of the year without a shadow of a doubt for me. From dynamic to stillness to incredibly free manic movement, to rambling argumentative sentiments to razor-sharp moments of immense power and wit, Coon manages to make a character so undeniably brilliant tremendously believable the entire time. The Nest is a lot more than just Coon’s movie. But by God, does she take the thing to a whole other level.

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A glorious slow-burning 9/10. Immediately one of my favourite films of the year and pretty distinctly one of my favourite performances of the year from Coon, with more stellar work for Law in his long cannon of charismatic con-men. Durkin has created an exquisitely taut and beautifully composed tale of imploding disintegration. A deeply haunting family saga built around a tale of a romance of true pain. A distinctly powerful and exceptionally told story that we have seen before, but never quite like this.

P.S. I now return to my opening Oscar sentiment, if Carrie Coon specifically fails to receive a nomination this year, I’ll be genuinely annoyed. I get the distinct feeling however that she won’t be and that I will be singing the praises of Coon for a long time, with the added comment of how it baffles me deeply that she wasn’t nominated, never mind didn’t win.

NOTE: I again, wrote this review prior to the nominations. I am, again, very sad. 

-       -   Thomas Carruthers