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Based on the million-selling Orange Prize winning novel by Lionel Shriver and directed by acclaimed film-maker Lynne Ramsay, We Need to Talk About Kevin is an emotional thriller starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton, Academy Award nominee John C. Reilly and Ezra Miller. Eva (Tilda Swinton) puts her ambitions and career aside to give birth to Kevin. The relationship between mother and son is difficult from the very first years. When Kevin is 15, he does something irrational and unforgivable in the eyes of the community. Eva grapples with her own feelings of grief and responsibility. Did she ever love her son? And how much of what Kevin did was her fault?
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thankfully the excess of flowing red wet stuff was mostly symbolic,
This review is from: We Need To Talk About Kevin [DVD] (DVD)
This arrestingly and intelligently shot film raises many questions, without providing answers, about why children (from 'respectable' backgrounds) grow up to commit monstrous acts. Are some born innately evil, or is it something that is done to them by remiss parenting? Or some of both? There is not time in a film to explore all the issues that are thoroughly exposed (again without proselytising) by Lionel in her absorbing and coldly fascinating book. Therefore the film gives snapshots of the book's scenes and strong symbolic imagery underpins the main themes, such as lots of red liquid, (rivers dyed red, red paint daubed on Eva, (the mother's), house-front, red jam (sandwiches) favoured first by her son, and then adopted by Eva, subsequent to the atrocity he commits). It wasn't clear to me whether the dazzling opening scene where Eva is submerged in a river of 'blood' (dye from petals?) amidst vast crowds of male bathers in somewhere India-like, was some sort of post-apocalyptic self-retribution, or a prophetic foretelling of horrors to come. Similarly I wondered whether Eva's new-found preference for nothing but a jam sandwich at the end, thus echoing Kevin's sparse culinary habit, represented her acceptance of her culpability; eg she created the monster, thus she was the monster, (and never mind the why's and the wherefore's). The strength of this film for me, in addition to the cinematography, was in its ambiguity. As in the book, we are not spoon-fed any answers as to why such heinous acts are committed. There is a final shock towards the end which turns upside down the viewer's opinion of what Kevin's motive may be, and who or what it is that he despises, (does he despise most the ones he killed, or those left alive?), or whether in fact it is merely hubris (and a touch of ennui?) rather than hatred that compels him. And then at the end, his succinct sentence attempting to 'explain' 'why?', revealing the briefest glimpse of vulnerability, is retained from the book; and for a moment, are we expected to feel something for him, that he is not entirely without humanity? And if we do, are we merely suckers for doing this, pawns in his unceasing game?
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Whose fault was it anyway?,
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This review is from: We Need To Talk About Kevin [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)
Not having read the Lionel Shriver novel on which this film is based, I went in with foreknowledge about nothing except - as is often the way - the story's concluding revelation. Still, this didn't detract from what turned out to be a moving, unsettling, deeply visceral cinematic experience. Tilda Swinton is consistently excellent as the mother of an odd teenage son whose behaviour casts a deep shadow on the life of her whole family. And Lynne Ramsay's directing unashamedly turns the entire film into an exercise in subjective story telling, a move that's entirely appropriate for a story in which different points of view and individuals' perceptions of events have a direct bearing on the development of the plot. Psychologically astute and totally mesmerising.
33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film of a great book,
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This review is from: We Need To Talk About Kevin [DVD] (DVD)
Having read the brilliant book by Lionel Shriver I was expecting a lot from this movie and it really didn't disappoint. A woman (Eva played by Tilda Swinton)gives birth to a son but suffering with some sort of depression cannot connect with her baby, the boy as he then grows up starts acting stranger and stranger until one fateful night onto which the movie builds. The film starts and carries on throughout going back and fourth from past to present it sounds a little disorienting but works very well, as we see the town having a hatred towards Eva and gradually seeing why this is (although it's fairly obvious what he did). There is almost no violence on screen in the film but the colour red is very prominant from the opening shot on, also the film very heavy in symbalism the lychee scene is one example -kevins sister had an injury to her eye he just peels and chews on one. Performance wise The two leads are excellent Ezra Miller as teenage kevin is chillingly realistic in his portrayal, John C Reilly is good but in a pretty thankless role as the father, also Jasper Newell as young kevin is very good, but the film belongs to the astounding Tilda Swinton as the troubled Eva, it would have been very easy to over play her role but she gives a very controled but fantastic performance. Scottish Director Lynne Ramsey comes back brilliantly to directing after a 10 year gap and with this under her belt it certainly won't be another 10 years until her next film. Recommended to anyone psychological thriller/horror's.
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