Movie Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin

Sometimes, pleasant movies aren't very good. Sometimes, unpleasant ones are. Such is the case with We Need To Talk About Kevin, which tells the story of a mother coping with every day life after the atrocities committed by her teenage son at his high school.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, the mother who now lives a personal daily hell as she recalls moments throughout her son's life and upbringing, moments that signaled something was very wrong basically from day one.

It's a unique perspective as we are shown some things that suggest perhaps Eva played a part in the end result, although "blame" would be a strong word as nothing justifies what Kevin does.

We are shown the chronological life Eva now stumbles through intermixed with recollections she has about Kevin's upbringing. Although we see Kevin's development in three phases (as a toddler, young adolescent and teenager), the sequences aren't always in order.

Each phase of his life becomes progressively more and more disturbing, until he finally reaches a teenager that is a full- blown manipulative psychopath, played with upsetting realism by Ezra Miller. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that Kevin's father (John C. Reilly) is naively blind to everything that is going on. Only Eva realizes that there is a problem, yet she is utterly unable to do anything about it.

We realize early on what the end result is going to be, and the plot of the movie just fills in gaps for us by providing little glimpses of everything that caused the problem. Director Lynne Ramsey excellently weaves the past and present sequences into a dramatic narrative that plays more like a horror film, although the worst of it takes place off screen. Swinton and Miller are so good that it's a bit frightening, and as I write this the night the Oscar nominations were released, I'm more than a bit surprised at least Swinton was not nominated.

It's a strong film, but it's so dark, disturbing, and relatable to any number of  real life incidents that it's hard to give We Need To Talk About Kevin anything resembling a glowing recommendation. In fact I'm not sure the word "enjoy" belongs in the discussion. If you're interested in a well constructed, expertly acted movie and aren't concerned with the heavy material, then by all means it's worth a look. But it's not for everyone.

Rating: 8/11

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