We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011)

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a very disturbing film. In some ways, it is an update of The Bad Seed (1956). In other, more important, ways, it is a meditation on motherhood and unexplained violence. A sense of unspeakable dread seeps through the entire film This is a sobering film, a film that leaves the viewer in a good way feeling very uncomfortable. We Need to Talk About Kevin sports outstanding performances, wonderful direction, and brutal honesty. This is definitely one of the best films of 2011.

Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton) and her husband Franklin (John C. Reilly) are a happy and successful couple who decide to have a child. Eva, however, is not enthusiastic about having a child, and from his birth on, Kevin (played by three different actors at different times, Rock Duer, Jasper Newell, and Ezra Miller) appears confrontational and hateful towards his mother Eva. As Kevin grows older, his behavior because more disturbing, culminating in a tragic and unspeakable event that causes Eva to rethink the way she raised him his whole life.

A brief summary of this film cannot do it justice. It contains so many different subjects and themes that is surprising that the film is only 112 minutes long. As we watch the film, we are asked to think about the nature of evil, the question of nature versus nurture, the nature of motherhood, and also what breeds a killer. Probably the most amazing thing about the film is the way the story is told. Director Lynne Ramsay presents the film in a kaleidoscopic style that takes quite a while to give the audience an anchor. From the first frame on, we are in Eva's head, where present events and stark memories of the past exist at the same time. During the entire the film, we have a sense that something truly awful has happened, and we are very curious to find out what it is. Ramsay's innovative direction, similar to Christopher Nolan's in Memento (2000), keeps the audience engaged and forces it to think carefully about what it is seeing on the screen. She also frequently uses pop and country songs in the film to underline its themes. This is a bit more conventional, but it is still very effective.

We Need to Talk About Kevin addresses a topic very rarely seen in the movies: what if a mother does not really like her child? From the very beginning of his life, it is fairly obvious that Eva does not particularly like Kevin. However, Kevin, from being a toddler on, seems to constantly do things to torment Eva. The film asks this question: does Eva's uncomfortableness cause Kevin to be a bad person, or is Kevin a bad child that makes Eva uncomfortable with him? It is to the film's credit that it never answers this question specifically. [SPOILER ALERT] when in the end Kevin becomes a vicious killer who kills his father, sister, and several students at his school, we are left wondering who or what is responsible (the film cleverly sidesteps the question of guns in school by having Kevin commit his atrocities with a high powered bow and arrow).

To a person, the cast is wonderful. Tilda Swinton gives a nuanced performance that allows to see a woman who is constantly on the edge, but is not willing to take the final step to resolve the situation. Throughout the film she keeps a stiff formality in her conversations with Kevin, indicating that she is aware there is a problem, but does not know what to do about it. The section of the film after Kevin commits his awful deeds, she seems incredibly sad and vulnerable. While three different actors portray Kevin at different times in his life, Ezra Miller is chilling as the teenage Kevin. He is reminiscent of Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1971), although he is much less flashy than Alex in that film (as an aside, Ramsay's use of anamorphic widescreen gives the film a very Kubrickian feeling). Miller seems to have modeled him on the notorious Eric Harris of Columbine infamy. His chillingly cool performance is not easily forgotten.

Alex DeLarge in the 21st Century

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a film that asks disturbing questions about childhood, motherhood, and the nature of evil. Using an innovative directorial style, director Lynne Ramsay pulls into this dark tale, and in offering no comforting answers, forces the audience to decide the answers itself. This is a film that should be seen by all.

Eric Miller