We Need to Talk About Kevin Movie Review

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Rent We Need to Talk About Kevin on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Lynne Ramsay & Rory Stewart Kinnear (screenplay), Lionel Shriver (novel)
Directed by: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. Kevin's final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined.

Verdict
This is an uncomfortable movie. Going in blind would certainly add to the intrigue the movie builds, but this is a movie you need to know what you're getting into. Kevin is a psychopath. We see him growing up and the fallout from his actions. This looks at nature over nurture as his mom is forced to bear blame. This movie is grim and unsettling. Despite being well made it's not a movie you need to see or one that I will ever watch again.
It depends.

Review
This falls into a genre of uncomfortable movies like Elephant. It's one thing for a movie to contain violence, but another for it to be terrorism on a small and very real scale. With a movie like this I can't see wanting to be surprised by the plot. It's a lot.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva.

This juxtaposes timelines, focusing on Kevin's mother Eva (Tilda Swinton). It's disorienting as the viewer begins to realize what's present and past. Eva is scorned by everyone, and the movie doesn't reveal why until later. It's clear she's used to this treatment, or it could be that she feels guilt. It becomes clear Kevin (Ezra Miller) did something, we just don't know what. A tragedy happened. We'll see that what Kevin did wasn't her fault, but people want someone to blame. The only person in town that shows her any amount of kindness is one of the victims. While no one sees Eva as a victim, she certainly is.

Eva seems like an expecting mom that doesn't want to be. Kevin's early years were frustrating as he's difficult and antagonizing seemingly out of spite even at such a young age. Kevin treats his father and mother very differently. It doesn't like his mom, and we're never given a reason. She's often frustrated, but you can't blame her. Kevin strives to antagonize. While Eva wasn't a perfect mother, it's clear there is nothing she did. Eva's second child, Celia, exhibits no signs of sociopathic or psychopathic behavior.

Kevin and Eva.

A number of scenes of Eva and Kevin mirror. While they're certainly linked, they are very different. I wondered why Eva visits Kevin in jail. It's either that she feels some amount of guilt since she's his mother or it's just a mother instinct to visit her son.

Kevin is a sociopath. He likes to destroy and hurt people. For a child he's devious and manipulative. He hates his mom and puts on an act for his dad. The father never believes Kevin could be at fault, but he only sees a very specific side.
It's not clear why he hates his mom. It could just be the allure of power manipulation provides. This is also a movie making a point. We don't see Kevin at school, but I'd imagine some of this sociopathic tendencies would manifest.

This just gets more uncomfortable throughout. We start to see how the disparate scenes come together and what Kevin is planning. A motif of red paint continues throughout the movie. Eva is frequently seen trying to clean read paint off of her house, an act of vandalism from a community that hates her. She can never remove that red paint, that stain of guilt.

This isn't a movie I'll ever watch again. It's well made, and examines nature versus nurture in children's' personalities and traits, but it's harrowing to be reminded about the violence present in the world.