We Need To Talk About Kevin

We Need To Talk About Kevin is one of the most chilling and haunting films of the year. Based on Lionel Shriver's novel, the non-linear tale focuses on Eva (Tilda Swinton), a grieving mother recollecting the life of her eldest son and his dissent into violence when he orchestrates a school shooting. Trying to move on with her life by working as a desk clerk, Eva fears being seen in public and bearing the label as the woman who brought another Charles Whitman into the world. Her home is smeared in red paint and she attempts to wash it off like a modern day Lady Macbeth.

Tilda Swinton gives a harrowing performance of a woman giving unconditional love and receiving internal pain. Her gripping performance leaves one wondering when she will reach her breaking point. One scene that stands out is when she is visited
by a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses and she tells them that she is going to Hell. From first frame to last, Swinton gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a self-destructive woman, who tries to redeem herself in any way she can, even if it means visiting her son in prison.

Ezra Miller's performance as Kevin is phenomenal with his nuances of a young Hannibal Lecter in the guise of a self-destructive kid. Even as a baby, you sense a certain evil looming in the film as Eva pushes him in a Rosemary's Baby pram. Take the calmness of Woody Harrelson's serial killer in Natural Born Killers with the rhetoric of Charles Manson and you get one of the most frightening performances of the year. John C. Reilly takes a break from the comedic roles he's played in the past with his performance as Franklin, the naive and doting father who underestimates Eva's ever-growing concerns over their son.

Mixed with the deep-seeded philosophies of Foucault and the media saturation rhetoric of Octavio Paz, Lynne Ramsey directs a powerful adaptation of one of Britains' most controversial novels of recent memory. She has only made two films throughout her twelve-year career; the working-class drama Ratcatcher and Morvan Callar. Her third film is as equally gritty as Ratcatcher mixed with a harrowing melodrama in the style of Lars Von Trier. We Need To Talk About Kevin is a film that will leave you taking after the credits roll.

3 1/2 out of 4 stars