Classic Movie Review: We need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Directed by Lynne Ramsey

Written by Rory Stewart Kinnear, Lynne Ramsey

Starring Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly

Release Date October 21st. 2011

Streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi

When we chose the movie We Need to Talk About Kevin for our classic on the August 29th edition of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast I promise you, we were not intending it as a humorous reference to the current real life troubles of star Ezra Miller. I had honestly forgotten that the troubled star was the title character, Kevin, a sociopath who grows ever more unhinged until he causes an unimaginable tragedy. We Need to Talk About Kevin was chosen because star Tilda Swinton is back in theaters with a brilliant new movie called Three Thousand Years of Longing.

With that problematic aside noted, lets talk about We Need to Talk About Kevin. The inconceivably brilliant writer-director Lynn Ramsey came to the project after reading author Lionel Schriver's unnerving book and after being approached by then producer of the film Tilda Swinton. It was Ramsey who suggested that Swinton should move from the Producer's chair to the center of this swirling vortex of a story about mother dealing with guilt, anguish, depression, and unceasing grief. Ramsey's instincts, as usual, were on point. Few other actors in the world carry the grace and gravitas that Swinton does.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a shifting in time narrative. We open on author and adventurer Eva Katchadourian (Swinton) experiencing an ecstatic joy as part of the annual Spanish Tomato festival, La Tomatina. Knowing where the movie is headed, seeing a roiling group of people all covered in red has a jarring quality, even with the ecstatic expressions on everyone's face. It's clear why Ramsey chose this visual motif, it demonstrates the life of Eva while also instilling a certain dread among those who know what the movie is about.

After having been a travel writer, Eva's life is changed when she meets and falls in love with Frank and the two have an unexpected pregnancy. Kevin is born to an ambivalent Eva and an excited Frank who begins changing their lives almost immediately. With the new baby, Frank wants to move to the suburbs, leave New York City where Eva's career is centered. She eventually, very reluctantly, goes along with the plan, hoping that the distant and dyspeptic Kevin might become more manageable in a quieter environment.

Meanwhile, in a future set after Kevin has committed a horrific crime, Eva is left to live with the consequences of her son's actions. When Eva gets up to go to work she finds her home and car covered in red paint and messages calling her a murderer and other, more colorful words, painted among the splashes. Her reaction tells us that this is nothing new for her. Kevin's crime is maybe a year or two in the past but no one has forgotten what he did and she is carrying much of the blame.

The shifting time scale of We Need to Talk About Kevin is easy to follow if you're paying attention. What you might not pick up however, is how this story is set almost entirely inside Eva's memory. The movie is not intended as a literal recollection of what happened, it's a completely subjective, persecuted perspective put forward by Eva as if her scattered mind were pinging from memory to memory without her consent or control. For Eva, time is indeed a flat circle, every memory whirls past and she gets swept up before being swept onto the next.

I mention this because some have complained about elements of We Need to Talk About Kevin. Specifically, the idea that even as a baby or a toddler, Kevin seemed to target his mother with his sociopathic tendencies. That is not intended to show literally that Kevin was always a monster. Rather, it's how Eva has always perceived her unwanted, overbearing child. The same can be said of the many scenes where extras seem to stand still and stare at Eva for long periods. There again, these strangers are not literally staring at her all the time, it's a visual reflection of how Eva feels when she goes in public.

Lynn Ramsey ingeniously weaves these touches into the movie and if you are willing and engaged it deepens the experience of We Need to talk About Kevin. A pure example of Ramsey's brilliant eye for heartbreaking visuals comes just after Eva has discovered what Kevin did at his school. Eva returns home and finds a sliding glass door to the back yard open. A thin white curtain blows ominously like a ghost in the breeze. Neither Frank or their daughter, Celia (Ashley Gerasimovich), are answering Eva's calls.

The scene is breathtaking and Tilda Swinton is the reason. Her lithe body, her visceral, physical performance, those intense eyes, she tells us everything without a single word of dialogue. We Need to Talk About Kevin is an underappreciated classic from one of the most underappreciated directors working today. With We Need to Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here, Ramsey is crafting an untouchable resume. Ramsey has a singular vision, a way to present dark subject matter than is unabashedly haunting and visceral. She makes you feel the heartache and pain of her characters.

We Need to Talk About Kevin is streaming now on Amazon Prime and Tubi. Find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews online now at SeanattheMovies.Blogspot.com. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean and follow the archive blog at SeanattheMovies. You can also hear me raving about Lynne Ramsey and We Need to Talk About Kevin on the newest episode of the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast available now on your favorite Podcasting App. Listen and be sure to share this podcast and this review with your friends. If you like what you've read, consider a Tip here on Vocal.