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We Need to Talk About Kevin Movie Review

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2011 psychological thriller drama film directed by Lynne Ramsay and starring Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller. It’s a very good movie that could have been amazing.

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“Why would I not understand the context?

I am the context“

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Kevin’s mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. But Kevin is only beginning his dangerous descent into increasingly horrifying actions. The title of this movie is one of the biggest misdirects in recent cinematic history to the point that it constitutes false marketing.

This isn’t a story about Kevin, not at all. This is a story about Eva, his mother. Tilda Swinton delivered a powerhouse performance in a very tragic role. It’s a shame that the Academy ignored her when in reality she was undoubtedly one of the best performers of 2011. You can sense the pain and disbelief in her eyes alone and she is the best thing about the movie for sure.

The film explores what it would be like for mothers with problematic children and just how terrifying it is to lose your child in any way, though this would surely be the most brutal one. Her arc is the best written in the film for better and for worse.

Yes, I’d expected the movie to develop the character of Kevin much better. First, let’s just praise Ezra Miller. He’s always had this very odd, villain-like look to him, so he was absolutely perfectly cast for this role. In fact, I would say that he was never better before or afterward, and Hollywood should surely utilize him more in villainous roles again in the future.

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Yes, Kevin is horrifying. Many of his actions are repulsive, but even worse is the utter lack of empathy and the psychological torture that he continually inflicts on his poor mother. The string of terrifying things that he does makes the movie a difficult, disturbing watch.

But again, we do not get any psychological insight on his behavior nor the commentary on whether or not he was born as the bad seed of the family or that something else made him act this way. Clearly, the former is the case, but the movie never tries to deal with this issue in any more meaningful way. Instead, it moves totally toward the mother’s direction in a very one-sided manner.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is gorgeously filmed with the editing being particularly impressive as the childhood scenes and the transitional sequence are immaculately put together. The direction is also very strong and the movie’s look and attention to detail are both admirable. The structure of the movie following Kevin from childhood to adolescence worked while the ending was super dark and chilling.

But my main issue stems not just from its one-sided narrative, but also from both halves feeling distinctly different, but both not amounting to much when put together. The first half focuses on Kevin, but the latter focuses on Eva. The second half with the mature Kevin never fulfilled the promise of the former half when it comes to the psychological examination of his personality, and that bothered me as the movie felt half-assed throughout. Again, it’s very good and intense, but this type of premise needed a much more sophisticated execution in my book.

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