Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) by Lucy P — 12 Dec 2013

We Need To Talk About Kevin attempts to be a drama with elements of psychological thriller cinema, but utterly collapses under its repetitive plot structure and the fact that it's storytelling is left heavily to the implications.

We Need To Talk About Kevin is very clearly an ambitious art house horror film about family drama, and while it does have intense and chilling moments it is utterly undone by its own flaws.

For one thing it's all very slow. The story shows Kevin Khatchadourian at an inconsistent pace which ties a story about him developing as a complex child together with one about how Eva Khatchadourian is dealing with the aftermath of it, but it never really sticks to one and the constant flipping back and forth between the two storylines grows tedious pretty fast and is annoying. It's just that there is only two half-stories to tell in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and if the entire story relied on only one of the two plotlines in the story then it would be unsuccessful and generic. Yet mixing two slightly interesting plotlines together simply makes it fail to transcend being too amateur and basic to introduce anything new to the table. Although Lynne Ramsay does give good direction to the story, it's just not much of an interesting one. Maybe it is more so for people who understand the complicated concept of parenting or particularly motherhood, but for someone like me who isn't even all that interested in that concept unless it's explored in a stronger manner it just fails to entertain. We Need to Talk About Kevin just proved to simply be boring, slow and tedious. Even though it was good visually by making use of strong cinematography and editing as well as good direction, a strong screenplay and some talented acting, We Need to Talk About Kevin just failed to grab me and felt to me to be bereft of an intense atmosphere or enough of a convincing story. If not for the acting I would have found We Need to Talk About Kevin to be much worse than it was.

Tilda Swinton manages to give a strong lead performance where she nails all the trauma of Eva Khatchadourian spot on, as well as the complex mother-son relationship she shares with Jasper Newell and Ezra Miller. The chemistry between Tilda Swinton and Jasper Newell in particular is a strange and powerful thing because it has the obvious visual quality of a mother-son relationship and yet the fighting chemistry of adversaries, and what they share becomes an intensely haunting experience for the viewers.

Jasper Newell himself is greatly talented in his brief role on screen and manages to capture the dark spirit of Kevin Khatchadourian very well in his juvenile delinquency.

John C. Reilly also does a good job, but it's Ezra Miller who stands out because he captures the dark malicious spirit of the titular Kevin Khatchadourian through his mere facial gestures, as well as through his swiftly confident line delivery which shows that he knows how to express few emotions, predominantly anger. His words seem more manipulated than articulated, and that's what makes him a powerful character. Thanks to Ezra Miller, the story at least comes off as being convincing in the area of what defines Kevin as being psychopathic.

But save from being visually strong and benefitting from Ezra Miller's talented acting ability, We Need to Talk About Kevin falls flat and boring.