Nesting (2026) by Chloé Cinq-Mars

Director: Chloé Cinq-Mars

Year: 2026

Country: Switzerland/Canada

Alternate Titles: Peau à Peau

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Plot:

After having given birth, a young mother tries to adjust to the growing difficulties in raising a newborn baby that is slowly draining her of her physical and mental stability, putting her at risk for her feelings of depression even more when the issues compound into something physical.

Review:

On the whole, this was a solid if formulaic take on the genre. One of the better factors with this one is the way it builds a haunting enough portrayal of a mother stressed out to the point of not being able to care for herself or her child. Dropped into this with the baby only months old and her trying her best to raise it despite the pain associated with breastfeeding and the constant lack of sleep that comes from being the only one home to tend to its feedings, the constant critiques about raising him right, her dwindling self-confidence that’s gone about her body, and the inability to trust her partner with help raising it, this gives us a clear view of who she is early on. Seeing her as emotionally broken and trying to push through it for the sake of being a mother takes a toll on her to the point of having an affair with a former beau of hers to avoid the worsening depression that lingers over her from the situation, which isn’t helped at all when it’s revealed how much involvement she had with a traumatic incident involving her now-dead sister that continually creeps into her life.

With this establishing her as the kind of stressed-out new mother struggling with postpartum depression, there’s little else here that comes off as wholly interesting to sit through. The sluggish pacing that takes forever to get going as we just hammer home the problems she’s facing at every turn that seemingly every genre effort focuses on, from the boyfriend who can’t stop smoking marijuana to save his burgeoning musician’s life to raise the baby with her, the physical scars she has from being the only one feeding the baby, the nitpicks from her mother about what kind of a mother she is to let her child be that difficult to raise, and any doctor she goes to saying that she just needs to stay the course despite pleas for genuine help as all it does it repeat these without building on them. A subplot involving her being haunted by the ghost of her sister is intriguing enough, but completely underwhelming with how little it factors into the film itself, with it choosing to go the psychological route rather than genuine genre fare. It’s not a major issue against this one, but it does do enough to bring it down.

Overview: ***/5

A generally formulaic psychological genre effort, there’s a lot to like here that comes off incredibly well in this particular setup, while also being let down by the haunting familiarity and sluggish pacing. Those with an interest in this style or approach, or who aren’t bothered by the drawbacks, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed extreme caution.