We Need To Talk About Kevin Review

Director: Lynne Ramsey

Cast: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell, Siobhan Fallon.

Running Time: 112 minutes.

Certificate: 15

Synopsis: The mother of a teenage boy who went on a high-school killing spree tries to deal with her grief — and feelings of responsibility for her child’s actions — by writing to her estranged husband.

With the best-selling book by Lionel Shriver, director Lynne Ramsey (MORVERN CALLAR) has crafted a film that is filled with raw emotion: a powerful and thought-provoking tale of guilt.

In fractured time frames, the film shows what effects a horrendous act, committed by her Son Kevin, has on successful travel writer Eve. It is a difficult film to watch as its plot unravels to show what horrors one can bear from points in Kevin’s life that lead up to the tragic and brutal act. Just like the masterpiece but difficult-to-watch features before it like HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is not a film that many will enjoy a repeat viewing of time and again, but it’s as fascinating as it is devastating.

Tilda Swinton gives an amazing performance with a difficult role, the guilt of her inability to bond with her son as a child growing up gnawing away at her. Was this why Kevin became a cold, detached teenager with a lust for evil, the mischievous-toddler-turned cold blooded mass murderer? The scenes are pieced together from Eve’s flashback memories, which is a departure from the source material’s writings to her husband. These are structured together to show how the distraught mother deals with Kevin’s crimes on a day-to-day basis. The abuse she accepts from neighbours, work colleagues and Kevin’s victims family members becomes the norm for her, and from her expression alone she believes that’s what she deserves, as the numbness of it takes over her. The Oscar-winning actress surely is a must for more awards after this performance, easily the most impressive I have seen by any actress this year.

Ezra Miller gives sinister depth to Kevin as a 15-year old, his facial expressions and cold emotionless eyes make you absolutely hate him from the moment he appears on screen. His smarmy grin and the way he toys with his parents and sister makes him a monster that would not be out of place in a major slasher film. And that’s what makes the film even more effectively frightening, that in this real world setting a literal monster in the body of this baby-faced teen. Jasper Newell, who plays Kevin in his younger days is perfectly cast in the few scenes in which he appears, giving early glimpses of what Kevin is capable of.

John C. Reilly plays the doting husband and father totally unaware what Kevin has become over the years and, of course, building towards. His rose tinted spectacles view, making him oblivious to his boys increasingly disturbing behaviour. It is a role that’s hard to rise up to when the two main performances are as good as they are.

The ending, even if throughout the movie we are shown parts of Kevin’s crimes, still comes like a punch to the gut. The film is an amazing accomplishment that for all the hard-to-watch scenes still makes it difficult to take your eyes away from the screen. The film is a family drama with the foreboding sense of the rise of evil, with the characters looking on, unable to change the events. It literally is a horror film first and foremost, and in the end we are left with the notion that Eve may not be all that different to her son and that is what scares her the most. Unmissable and unforgettable.

  WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is released 21st October 2011