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THE NEST

Cert 15

107 mins

BBFC advice: Contains very strong language, strong sex

"Greed is good", the character Gordon Gecko famously espoused in the classic 1980s movie Wall Street.

We tend to parcel the past in fancy ribbons, so it ought to be pointed out that those were the days when thousands of people were losing their jobs in nationalised industries while City workers were making mega-bucks.

The country was split and people such as Rory O'Hara (Jude Law), despite coming from working-class roots, didn't care.

They wanted the riches because they believed they deserved them.

However, many flew too close to the sun and were burned. They are represented here by Law whose avarice, backed by extraordinary self-confidence, seeks no bounds.

Sean Durkin's film shows the psychological fall-out of his consistently bad decisions on his wife (Carrie Coon) and children (Charlie Shotwell and Oona Roche).

After opportunities dry up in the United States he drags his reluctant American family back to his home city of London.

He puts them up in an extraordinarily large, if creepy country mansion while he sets about wheeler-dealing.

However, things begin to unravel from the start.

Law captures the arrogance of those 1980s city traders to a tee. He becomes a Walter Mitty character without knowing it.

I was also impressed by Coon's portrayal of a wife who loses her grip as reality begins to bite.

Unfortunately, however, while Durkin's set-up is excellent, he badly fails to convert.

Thus, the film repeatedly goes over the same ground before its intensity seeps away so badly that it appears he must have run out of ideas.

That's a shame because the ingredients for a classic movie are all there, someone just needed to come up with a killer ending.

 

Reasons to watch: Eerie thriller

Reasons to avoid: Takes too long to get to find its focus

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 6/10

Did you know? Jude Law's first name comes from the protagonist of the novel Jude the Obscure. Since his parents were teachers, they probably had a soft spot for Victorian literature.

The final word. Jude Law: "In truth, I didn’t really like Rory. I really liked the director and I really liked the story and I liked the dynamic between the husband and the wife and the children. But Rory... My worry was, on the page, he’s obnoxious. And then I recognised that actually, it was a challenge, to try and seduce..." Games Radar

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