Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) by Arthur J — 08 Jul 2012

Every once in awhile a movie comes along that I feel compelled to talk about, and WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of them. There's really no need for me to go into a detailed description about what the movie is about; anyone can read about the movie elsewhere on this site, but I will give a brief summary. This is a disturbing film about a mother, played by Tilda Swinton, whose relationship with her son (Ezra Miller) becomes increasing strained until all hell breaks loose. As I watched this film, I (and I'm sure others have noticed as well) saw that things were not going to go well between mother and son, which was clearly apparent when she gave birth to him and was quite distant in the hospital. Yet, throughout Eva, the mother, tries to bond with Kevin. When it became obvious that Kevin isn't "quite right", she tries to tell the father (John C. Reilly). But, of course, he thinks she's being unreasonable and tells her that he's doing what boy's do. Typical movie father response, I must say. The father, even when Kevin's evil ways became noticeable to him, STILL turned a blind eye.

For that very reason I didn't give the movie a full five stars. It would be nice to watch a movie when the father also can pick up that something is wrong instead of making it appear that the problem lies with the mother, and take some type of steps to resolve the problem. Other than that the movie was enjoyable.