We Need to Talk About Kevin- Review

We stepped into the cinema and already the atmosphere was heavy. There was no chew of popcorn or crackle of sweet wrappers, just the steadily increasing noise of expectation. I could almost feel the unanimous tight-chest sensation as the lights dimmed and I had the feeling that everyone in the room shared with me a sense of foreboding. They had read the book.
Lynne Ramsay has done a remarkable job of adapting Lionel Shriver’s text for the screen, capturing the evil in Kevin from the moment he arrives in the world to the incident in which he ends everyone else’s. Tilda Swinton plays Kevin’s mother and protagonist Eva Katchadourian, and is believable for the entirety of her screen time. Not for one minute did I doubt that she had raised, and battled with Kevin. Swinton’s ability to convey raw emotion through her facial expressions and body language means that although the film relies on visual characterisation rather than dialogue, the viewer understands her on a vastly more intimate level.
Ezra Miller plays Kevin and is every bit the ostentatious, challenging son. Miller’s good looks mixed with his unsettling stares and callous manner succeed in creating unease that does not shift for a long time after people have gone home. And despite many of the scenes featuring a teenage Kevin squeezed comically into his child self’s T-shirts, Miller exudes such control and supremacy that this is turned on its head and we are lead to respect his, be it warped, choice.
Ramsay’s use of red throughout the film may seem obvious, and its links to blood may appear unnecessary. However, they offer a consistency throughout the film whilst a time continuum is played with, juggling with the viewer’s mind to the point where the colour theme may be the only constant. The scene of the incident itself may come as a disappointment to those who have read the book. It is not done in nearly as much detail but merely suggested at through a series of shots on various characters. This however, lends itself to the imagination of the viewer, which in turn, makes the scene all the more powerful. The wide eyed expression from Swinton outside the school is haunting to say the least.
This film, on its most simplistic level, addresses the nature versus nurture debate. From even before we see Eva staring at her heavily pregnant reflection, we can tell that she is separated from the ideas of parenthood despite her efforts to unearth her maternal instincts. But does this detachment cause a child to become evil, or is the evil something already part of them?
Whether you have read the book or not, We Need To Talk About Kevin is a film worth watching. It is not one for those looking for entertainment or a happy ending. It is far from an easy watch. But this film gets down to the fundamentals of characterisation and offers an alternative to the typical Hollywood movies screened night after night.