This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Not to beat up on a little indie movie, but "Nesting" is a smug version of "Wanderlust," only with actors you don't know instead of Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd.
Neil (Todd Grinnell) and Sarah (Ali Hillis) are married with a house and tons of IKEA furniture in Pasadena. Neil, trying to break out of his materialist funk, urges Sarah to take an impromptu camping trip. They instead end up breaking into their old apartment, in the hipster-heavy Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, and decide to squat there, in spite of her well-paying job and the continued renovations on their house.
Writer-director John Chuldenko builds his romantic-comedy around Grinnell, who's a Paul Rudd clone without the charm, and saddling the appealing Hillis with the thankless role as the couple's designated grown-up. (Actually, the story's only true adult is the apartment building's owner, played by Erin Gray of "Buck Rogers" fame.)
Worst of all, when the moment comes in which Neil should face a reckoning, Chuldenko instead throws in a wacky face-saving plot twist. (Apparently, you can buy a deus ex machina on Craigslist.)
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'Nesting'
Opens Friday, May 11, at the Tower Theatre; rated PG-13 for a scene of drug use, language and sexual references; 93 minutes. For more movie reviews, visit nowsaltlake.com/movies.