The Nest; Grade: B+
The Nest tells a story about an high end family known as the O’Hara’s. Life for the O’Hara’s is pretty good, the father Rory (Jude Law) is a successful businessman. The mother Allision (Carrie Coon) takes care of her own horse ranch, as the children Samantha (Oona Roche) and Ben (Charlie Shotwell) are living comfortable lives with their friends and such. That is all about to change as Rory receives a job opportunity in London that could potentially bring in a great amount of riches, even though the O’Hara’s are living just fine. They move in to a gigantic house as big as a castle, as a new life begins for O’Hara’s.
The Cinematography was pretty solid, really enjoyed the authentic look this film is going for, it does look like something from the 80’s. The Score was solid as well, I do feel reminiscent of one tune that sounds familiar towards the likes of Hereditary. Sometimes the composed Score can make you uncomfortable rightfully so, as the world for the O’Hara’s is crashing down bit by bit. The cast as a whole was pretty good. Jude Law playing Rory had a pretty good performance, as he fits the aggressive businessman nature just perfectly. The character Rory is well written as you understand what motivates him to go forward with this decision, though a gamble Rory wants to achieve a once and a lifetime fantasy world of riches. Allison played by Carrie Coon had a solid performance as well. You understand her trouble with this move, as she felt completely comfortable where she was at and especially having a grown connection to her horse stable. Same can be said for the children played by Oona Roche and Charlie Shotwell, both had comfortable lives where they had friends and a nice childhood, as now they travel across the world to start all over. It’s different when you’re moving from state to state, as visiting your friends is possible. But moving country to country makes visiting others nearly impossible, so the children really have to find common ground in this new scenery fast, as it’s not so easy with children especially dealing with culture changes.
I do have a flaw with The Nest and that is pacing. Sometimes the film can feel slow at times, as you hope some of the pacing can be picked up. In a time where new releases in theaters are crucial, I’m honestly surprised my local favorites Regal, AMC, and Cinemark did not book this film. I had to travel long ways across town to a Galaxy Theaters to see The Nest, as I’ve heard rave reviews on it. The Nest was certainly worth traveling across town for, as I really enjoyed this film.
This is honestly one of the better written dramas I’ve seen as of lately, where it’s purely a drama and nothing else. The story at hand is so well written, about what happens when one doesn’t see the true meaning of life and happiness. For Rory a happy life is suppose to be by the amount of money and material things you own. You see Rory acquires a giant house, an expensive fur coat for his wife, private schools for the children, and a horse. Soon enough all those lavish things will have gone to waste, as the entire family including Rory is extremely unhappy here.
What Rory doesn’t understand is the true meaning of happiness, doesn’t come by gaining all this useless junk. Making a lot of money is not a crime itself, but when it comes to achieving a happy life, money is really not answer. What Rory failed to understand is the true success in life is making sure you can provide for your family just enough, as well as your own family is happy. In New York they were living just fine as everyone is happy, it was pretty blasphemous Rory made this move, but you can understand as he suffers from the involvement of greed, as his mind is in La La Land thinking more money is going to bring in more happiness.
Rory can also be use as a pawn in which people take those whom are honest and true to themselves, over those dishonest and be the complete opposite of themselves. It catches on in the third act, as Rory claims he’s a fan of the topics of discussion at this dinner meeting, as the wife calls him out on his bs. The people at the dinner table have lost interest in Rory’s pitch because since he’s so full of it, it’s hard to imagine working with someone that isn’t who he says he is. Rory is at an identity crisis as he consistently pretends to be something he’s not, only to hope to gain clients and friends, when in reality people like you more if you just be yourself instead. Sometimes people can spot out the bs easily and it’s not even worth investing your time in someone.
The best scene in this entire film is simply the cab drive scene, where Rory and this cab driver talk about life. It’s such a great sequence of dialogue, as Rory is delivered a major wake up towards reality, where his idea of a good life for his family is completely whack. Just watching this family go downhill bit by bit is devastating as it wasn’t all their fault, it was the enemy of greed that really killed this family, as Rory partakes in this enemy. A very timely film indeed where today’s society only cares about all this junk at hand.
Overall, The Nest was a pretty damn good film. I highly recommend checking this film out, definitely one of the best films towards the reopening of theaters. -Mitch Smietana