It is rather lovely to soak in a well made piece of cinema that will no doubt elicit a bevy of experiences depending on the audience. We watched this at home on DVD from our public library, my wife left after 30 minutes, she wasn't enjoying seeing the family turmoil. Jude Law is very good in this role, his character has to be completely broken before he accepts what he has caused for himself and his family and finally gets to the point where he has the chance to turn things around. During that period he spent lavishly with little regard for whether income would match it. He began to think past hard work and kept looking for the financial windfall. There is a very telling scene where Dad is taking a cab home and relates to the driver that at one time in the US he had a million dollars and thought he would have it forever. And then it turns out they are pretty much broke. It turns out the husband and wife were taking pretty much opposite approaches in dealing with others and issues. That is when Mom first learned that her husband lied. At a social party some time later the big boss recalls how Dad had called him to see if he could return. Dad leases a large, old estate that isn't comfortable for anyone. Mom is reluctant to pull up stakes, give up their ideal lifestyle, head to a big unknown. Dad lies to his wife, tells her his powerful former boss in London called and invited him to return. The kids have normal lives and activities. Mom has her own interests, rides and teaches riding, has a stable she rents space to others. Dad is British, he located the family in the US for his wife but now, in his 40s, is missing what he sees as the big business action in London. It is set in the 1980s and is mostly a character study of the four family members, dad, mom, a teenage daughter and a son that is just ten. This is a good movie for those of us who enjoy a good, meaningful story. Some symbolism involving a pet horse is broadcast with all of the subtlety of a tornado siren, and the sheer unpleasantness of being around these miserable people may turn some viewers off, but I mostly found myself engaged with this one. A couple of scenes, both set at dinner tables as it happens, where she asserts her dominance over her husband, are the film's most uncomfortable and memorable. Her character arc is the film's most fascinating element, a woman who's allowed herself to become subservient to her husband but for whom subservience doesn't come naturally. Law is very good, but Carrie Coon, as his wife, steals the show. But it doesn't, and the effect his greedy lust for more, more, more has on his family comprises the plot of this movie. Never content with what he has (which is a lot when the movie starts, and more than most people on the planet will ever have) he insists on moving his family into a giant and decaying mansion in England in order to take a job that he knows will give him his big break. The patriarch in "The Nest," played by Jude Law, is pretty much the exact opposite of that. This means deciding where are priorities are, what's important to us, and eliminating things and people that interfere with that. Our focus is on cutting all the junk out of our lives, not just material junk, but psychological and emotional junk as well. The older we get, the more my wife and I find ourselves drifting into the life philosophy of minimalism. "The Nest" was totally preaching to this choir.
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