There’s something commendably old fashioned and decidedly unassuming about Canadian writer-director Sean Durkin’s The Nest. Durkin’s debut feature was the haunting psychological drama Martha Marcy May Marlene which singlehandedly launched Marvel favourite Elizabeth Olsen’s movie career in 2011 and was met with rave reviews across the board. Since then however, the multi-award winning filmmaker has mostly focused on the production side of things.
It is 1980. British expat Rory (Jude Law) and his wife Allison (Carrie Coon) live a seemingly perfect life in New York City with their two children Ben and Sam. While Ben is Rory’s son, Sam is Allison’s daughter from an earlier relationship. When Rory suggests that the family would benefit from a move to the UK where Rory has been offered a job by his old city boss Arthur Davis, Allison isn’t fully onboard but agrees to the move.
Back in England, Rory rents a grand property in Surrey where he convinces Allison that she can start a horse-riding school.
Soon Allison realises that Rory hasn’t been completely honest about their financial situation when bills are left unpaid, leading her to question her marriage to a man who is incapable of telling the truth. As Rory sinks deeper and deeper into debt, we start to realise that his whole life has been nothing but smoke and mirrors.
Durkin’s direction is both precise and admirably restrained in its depiction of an era famed for its excesses and unmitigated arrogance. He delivers an impeccably written period piece about a man who has built a whole persona around a big lie to cover up for his own feelings of inadequacy in a country still ruled by a draconian class system.
Tonally, Durkin’s film often feels like a horror story, but the only horror here is the slow and painful destruction of a family in the most excruciating way.
Elevated by two extraordinary turns, courtesy of Law and Coon, The Nest feels both very fresh and undeniably familiar. Durkin shows yet again that he is the master of slow and progressive descent into chaos.
He has given us an engaging and haunting portrait of what it means to be consumed by one’s striving for social status.