If there’s one thing The Nest is not, it’s light and breezy. It’s heavy and chest tightening and emotionally dense. So naturally, with so much to unpack, our first question for Sean Durkin was if he saw any resemblance between Jude Law and Rob Jarosinski. There was awkward laughter, but no confirmation.
A bit about Sean Durkin
Born in Canada (lucky feller), Sean Durkin won his first cinematic accolade at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for his first feature Martha Marcy May Marlene. His short film, Mary Last Seen, on the same theme as Martha, won the award for best short film at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. Nearly a decade later, Durkin released his second film, The Nest (which feels a lot more like a sixth or seventh). The film had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.
On his newest feature The Nest
Like I said, The Nest is pretty gut wrenching, but in a way I haven’t felt watching a movie before. The story follows and Englishman, Rory O’Hara (Jude Law) and his American wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), who are raising their two children in New York City. The pair seem to have the perfect little hamster wheel life that so many parents live in, but Rory starts rattling the cage when he convinces his wife to move to England in search of better work opportunities.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about being supportive, but when the family movies into this massive mansion and Rory starts buying horses and cars and enrolling his kids in private school, I started to give Rob the side-eye.
The next hour-or-so, is a painful slog through relationship complexities. Rory’s unhealthy obsession with success and money alienates his family and everybody around him. Meanwhile, his wife who has been trying to hold her family together, starts to question her own sanity, from the constant gaslighting of her loving husband.
The Nest is available on streaming – check it out and let us know what you think!
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