We Need To Talk About Kevin: Movie Review

We Need to Talk about Kevin

Cast: Tilda Swinton, John C Reilly, Ezra Miller, Ashley Gerasimovich

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Based on Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin arrives in Kiwi cinemas with critical festival acclaim ringing in its ears.

Swinton stars as Eva, a former travel writer, who’s now become a mother – to her son Kevin. Only Kevin has a way of acting up which really, really winds her up; be it either stubborn childish behaviour or refusing to engage with her, but opening up when his dad (John C Reilly) shows up.

Suspicious she’s created a monster, Eva’s years are tormented by his behaviour and those fears are compounded when she gives birth to a baby girl.

But Eva’s not prepared for what Kevin will do when he becomes a teen – and the effect it will have on their lives.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a jigsaw puzzle of a film with pieces scattered around in the form of flashbacks, disorienting images and scenes of stark imagery which are out of sequence and may confuse some.

Initially, it’s quite trippy and confusing but most of those pieces do fit together (bar one sequence which sees Eva stumbling out of a courtroom, a media throng amassed around her every move) and it’s held together brilliantly by a stunning and compellingly nervy central performance from Swinton and in the teen years, Miller as Kevin (though even the child actors playing the kid do very well too).

This psychological tale of nature vs nurture will leave you with plenty of questions and while it sounds like a horror story from the above, it’s a well observed drama which is never anything less than unsettling throughout.

Rating: