Taglines: Having it all is never enough.
The Nest Movie Storyline. Rory (Jude Law), an ambitious entrepreneur and former commodities broker, persuades his American wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), and their children to leave the comforts of suburban America and return to his native England during the 1980s. Sensing opportunity, Rory rejoins his former firm and leases a centuries-old country manor, with grounds for Allison’s horses and plans to build a stable. But the family buckles beneath an unaffordable lifestyle and increasing isolation as they head toward a seemingly inevitable breakdown.
Driven by superb performances and a masterfully crafted aesthetic unease, Sean Durkin’s second feature contemplates the corrosive value system of the 1980s and its human toll, as it spreads like a sickness nobody realized was there. Rory is its embodiment—the unrepentant capitalist for whom wealth and status become the measure of self-worth.
This moral poison enters his home, sending everyone down their own self-destructive paths. Blurring social critique and character drama, Durkin reflects on the moral and spiritual emptiness of an unselfconsciously aspirational society—one in which we forsake everything to get what we want, even when we no longer know why we want it.
The Nest is a 2020 psychological thriller film written, directed, and produced by Sean Durkin. It stars Jude Law, Carrie Coon, Charlie Shotwell, Oona Roche, and Adeel Akhtar. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020, and was released in the United States and Canada on September 18, 2020, by IFC Films and Elevation Pictures respectively.
The project was announced in April 2018, with Jude Law and Carrie Coon set to star for writer and director Sean Durkin. Filming began in September 2018 in Canada for one week before moving to England.
Asout the Story
In the 1980s, Englishman Rory O’Hara and his American wife, Allison, live a middle-class life in New York City with their children Ben and Sam. Ben is their child together. Sam is Allison’s daughter from a previous relationship. Allison teaches horseback riding, while Rory is a trader. Believing his opportunities in the US are limited, Rory convinces Allison to relocate with him to Britain, where he plans to return to the firm of his former employer Arthur Davis.
Despite Allison’s initial misgivings, the family moves into a huge old mansion in Surrey. Rory convinces Allison she can start her own horse farm on the property, buying a horse named Richmond for her. Construction begins on a stable. Ben is enrolled in an expensive private school. Sam is enrolled in a state school. Rory takes Allison to high-class dinner parties with Arthur and his colleagues. However, the family has some difficulty adjusting, as their secluded location and respective commutes make it difficult for the children to get to school on time.
Several weeks later, construction abruptly stops on the stable. Learning that Rory never paid the builders, Allison discovers that his bank account is nearly empty. Rory promises he will have money soon, but Allison is forced to provide for the family by cutting into her hidden cash fund. Allison bristles at Rory’s efforts to appear high-class while they remain nearly broke. At the office, Rory proposes that Arthur sell his company to a larger American firm looking for a London office.
After brief consideration, Arthur refuses. At the house, Richmond collapses in pain and Allison is forced to go to a neighboring farmer, who puts the horse down. Rather than go home following Arthur’s rejection, Rory pays a visit to his mother, telling her about his family. She shows no interest in them and accuses Rory of abandoning her. Rory returns home late and gets into an explosive argument with Allison over their financial woes and Rory’s reckless, delusional behavior.
In order to provide income to the household, Allison begins working as a farmhand for the farmer. Sam makes some disreputable friends from the area, while Ben gets into a fight with some bullies. Rory and his colleague Steve arrange a potentially lucrative deal with a Norwegian fish-farming corporation. Rory and Allison attend a dinner with Steve and their prospective clients, while Sam and her friends throw a party back at the house.
As the party gets out of control, Ben flees outside and witnesses Richmond’s carcass being pushed to the surface of the grave due to improper burial. At the dinner, Allison openly mocks Rory before leaving the restaurant, taking the car and getting drunk at a nightclub. Rory attempts to downplay Allison’s behavior to the clients, but they opt to go into business with Steve while cutting Rory out.
Rory tries to take a taxi back to Surrey and confesses his many indiscretions to the taxi driver, claiming his job is “pretending to be rich”. With Rory’s confessions making it clear that he is both broke and a liar, the driver anticipates that he will be unable to pay for the long fare and leaves him in the middle of nowhere.
The Nest (2020)
Directed by: Sean Durkin
Starring: Jude Law, Carrie Coon, Charlie Shotwell, Oona Roche, Adeel Akhtar, Anne Reid, Michael Culkin, Wendy Crewson, Tattiawna Jones, John Ross Harkin, Tobias Macey
Screenplay by: Sean Durkin
Production Design by: James Price
Cinematography by: Mátyás Erdély
Film Editing by: Matthew Hannam
Costume Design by: Matthew Price
Set Decoration by: Joe Susin
Art Direction by: Tilly Scandrett, Ciara Vernon
Music by: Richard Reed Parry[1]
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, some sexuality, nudity and teen partying.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: January 26, 2020 (Sundance), September 18, 2020 (United States)
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