“The Nest” (Drama: 1 hour, 47 minutes)

Starring: Jude Law, Carrie Coon, Oona Roche and Charlie Shotwell

Director: Sean Durkin

Rated: R (Profanity, sexuality, nudity drug and alcohol use by teens)

Movie Review: “The Nest” is a good drama with solid performances from Jude Law and Carrie Coon. Their marriage is a seductive affair. Through the couple’s difficulties, audiences ride this engaging rollercoaster ride also.

Rory O’Hara (Law) is a British entrepreneur living in the United States with his family, his American wife Allison (Coon), teen daughter Samantha (Roche) and son Ben (Shotwell). The O’Haras move from New York City to an expensive and spacious English country manor during the 1980s. 

The move is not good for the family, which is experiencing financial difficulties. Rory and Samantha find their marriage at a breaking point as the family spirals into disarray.

People often avoid movies that are too realistic, yet those same people turn their televisions to reality shows that have writers and directors.

Some of the best movies are life stories, albeit fictional or nonfictional. “The Nest” is one of those screenplays.

Sean Durkin’s writing and direction move moviegoers through moments, establishing his cast brilliantly. He allows one to see a family at its best and worst. You celebrate with these people, weep with them and condemn them when they make asinine decisions. And through it all, one cheers for their familial bonds.

Affection for this family is contagious. Durkin uses that emotional connection to allow audiences to exist there with the family. You want to hug them but tell them not to follow you home with that drama.

“The Nest” rests upon drama, good performances executed keenly by its cast. Law and Coon, who reminds one of Cate Blanchett, are masterful. Law astutely plays a pretentious man seeking wealth. Coon plays a practical family matriarch well.

Law and Coon’s characters are opposites in the way they operate in public, but the actors make their roles authentic. Both are skillfully cunning as the married duo. They invite you into their characters’ relationship and charm their way into your life for the length of this movie’s runtime.

Two other characters of high interest are seasoned British actors Michael Culkin, who plays Law’s boss, Arthur Davis, and Anne Reid as Law’s mother. 

Davis plays his part nicely, appearing as a down-to-earth elitist if that is thinkable as rational. Law and Davis’ scenes are poignant, richly developing the men. 

Reid on the other hand has a very short but powerful role. She plays the mother who gave birth to Rory and that is all. She is emotionless, as cold as a politician after an election. She is the best indication of why Rory is the way he is. Rory’s attempts to impress his Mum drives him to be successful at all costs. 

Coon’s Allison’s development is via motherly connections with her children and her love of her horse. She sacrificed her career for her husband’s ventures and now regrets some of her decisions. Her children, conversely, are not one of those regrets — they are a refuge for peace. She also enjoys the horse she trains. The horse’s life appears to symbolize story elements, mainly Allison’s. 

Durkin (“Martha Marcy May Marlene,” 2011) does a good job of developing his characters. His intelligent writing provides motives for their actions. He also allows audiences to learn about his characters as the story develops, allowing one to observe changes in his on-screen personas as the story progresses.

Durkin and the cast are brilliant in this skillfully written and well-acted period piece. Durkin’s charm is a craftily arranged story that is an audience’s treat.

Grade: B+ (A good place to nest …)

Now playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas.

“The Secrets We Keep” (Mystery/Suspense: 1 hour, 37 minutes)

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman and Chris Messina

Director: Yuval Adler

Rated: R (Strong violence, rape, nudity, profanity and brief sexuality)

Movie Review: This suspense feature is a post-World War II America narrative. It is a revenge movie that should trigger strong emotions to see justice. However, “The Secrets We Keep” does evoke emotional connections for its characters.

Noomi Rapace stars as Maja, a Jewish Holocaust survivor. She is a happily married woman to Dr. Lewis Rossini (Messina), and they are the parents of Patrick (Jackson Dean Vincent). 

Once while out with Patrick, Maja notices a man walk past. He is a nightmare from a not too long ago past. Thomas (Kinnaman) is the man’s name, and Maja realizes Thomas is the man who raped and tortured her years earlier. She kidnaps Thomas and tortures him, trying to get him to confess. 

Thomas, a husband and father, remains resolute, pleading he is not that man. Maja’s husband, Lewis, is in a dilemma, trying to determine which one of them spouts the truth. 

Although “Secrets We Keep” has links to the Holocaust, it is not in the manner one would expect. Again, this is a retaliation movie. It is also a knockoff movie of “Death and the Maiden” (Roman Polanski, 1994), which is based on Ariel Dorfman’s play. Both movies have similar playouts. The story elements and characters have uncanny similarities.

That note aside, “The Secrets We Keep” keeps one’s attention. It sets up a mystery that needs solving. Who tells the truth, Maja or Thomas? They are equally convincing, and their spouses cast more doubts about whose story is factual.

Yet, this doubt that is cast by kept secrets also makes one not fully sympathetic to either Maja or Thomas. Thus, the emotional attachment afforded to them is less.

The modus operandi of any revenge movie is to make moviegoers feel the revenge is justifiable. The movie makes its audience wait for that while making one feel compassion for both Maja and Thomas. When the moment of truth arrives, it is not the powerful apex it should be. 

Still, this tale provides just enough intrigue to at least keep one engaged,

Grade: B- (No secret, it is playing now.)

Now playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas.

“Infidel” (Action/Thriller: 1 hour, 48 minutes)

Starring: Jim Caviezel, Claudia Karvan and Hal Ozsan

Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh

Rated: R (Strong violence, profanity and thematic elements,)

Movie Review: Inspired by true events, this movie is a thriller, action movie. It is interesting, but it plays better as a religious drama, which receives less focus. 

The initial setup is slow establishing characters in the prior half of this story. The latter half of the movie is better because of intriguing circumstances the main character finds himself. Too bad, this screenplay does not allow one more time to enjoy dramatic elements that lurk.

Doug Rawlins (Caviezel) is an outspoken Christian American journalist and blogger. A major talk show host invites Rawlins to speak in Cairo, Egypt, about Christianity and Islam. 

After Rawlins speaks about Jesus as the way to salvation, an Iranian militant group led by Ramzi (Ozsan) captures the journalist and holds him hostage. Ramzi and his men torture Rawlins. 

Later, the Iranian government charges Rawlins with espionage, accusing him of spying for the United States. Meanwhile, Rawlins’ wife, Elizabeth (Karvan), an official at the Department of State, travels to Tehran, trying desperately to free her husband.

The drama is missing because this script takes an international story and localizes it to include just a few people. This appears low-budget material that is unable to expand its scope to appear as worldly as the plot indicates.

Cyrus Nowrasteh directs this thriller. His screenplay feels like two movies. The first is one involving a missing daughter of a Muslim friend, and the other is about Rawlin’s capture and torture by angered Muslims who are Iranian operatives. The two halves of this movie feel like different movies, although they converge later. 

The latter half is where the movie scores points. It becomes a thriller. This movie also brings up secularism in a major way. Rawlins and Ramzi both appear to agree it is the secularists and religious extremists who push the religions against each other. Ramzi admits he is just carrying out orders as he tortures Rawlins. 

This movie scores major points as the men go back and forth about their respective religions. The movie could have spent more time with these scenes rather than some of the less-engaging scenes at the beginning.

Jim Caviezel and Hal Ozsan play their roles as a captive and inquisitor well. Ozsan is especially riveting as the movie’s most intriguing character. Their scenes are intensely violent. The moments show the steadfastness of each man regarding their religion. These moments drive the entertainment value of this movie enough to make it observable.

Grade: B- (Adequate despite its infidelities.)

Now playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas.

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar lives and works in Valdosta.