I feel tricked. Baited into believing this would be a film worth sticking with until the end. I waited for it to comment on modern-day voyeurism. Or bad parenting. Or perhaps why a boy would resent the society he's surrounded by since childhood. Plenty of ideas are presented, and they're all worth discussion, but nothing is said about our culture's desire for disturbing news that wasn't already made aware over fifty years ago by Hitchcock's Rear Window.
To be fair, We Need to Talk About Kevin is only slightly interested in rubberneckers. Director Lynne Ramsay adapted this story of a school massacre from the 2003 novel of the same name by Lionel Shriver. The actual massacre is a small part of the film's theme; shown in pieces and less than subtlety hinted at throughout as we watch Kevin grow up. More important is the relationship between Eva (Tilda Swinton) and her first born Kevin (Ezra Miller).
We Need to Talk About the Story
Eva is in a room full of other pregnant women and its clear she doesn't want to be there. She is regretting motherhood and even after giving birth, those feelings remain. Here is where We Need to Talk About Kevin attempts to explain what's wrong with Kevin. A mother and her child have a special bond and if the mother has feelings of anger and sadness inside her while pregnant, then it reflects on her child. Its a fascinating thought, but Ramsay never goes all the way and blames bad parenting (though he seems to want to).
We never really see a happy Kevin except for when he's with his dad (John C. Reilly) and even then it feels like he's putting on a show. Kevin is constantly uncontrollable and creating havoc for his own amusement. He has a clear resentment for his mother and Eva's many attempts at gaining his love is a lost cause. The damage has been done and the tragic event to come feels like fate. Probably doesn't help when you buy your sociopathic son a bow and arrow. Father of the Year award for John C. Reilly please! I always love seeing Reilly in a movie, but I can't defend his appearance here. He has no chemistry with Swinton and just seems uninterested throughout.
Horror is hinted throughout, but very little is on display. Its much more the mood of the film. It's psychological and self indulgent; unfortunately never insightful. The predictable ending: Eva sitting across from Kevin asking him "Why?" Why did he do it? Its the most important question for this film to try and answer. Of course it's held onto to the very end, but don't bother fast-forwarding to it cause you wont find any answers.
Main Theme
To his own detriment, Ramsay closely follows the ending of the book. Essentially saying that there is no point to the violence. Violence can be random, tragic, unforgiving, and make no sense at all. Immediately after the massacre, Kevin is pleased. He tells us why he did it. He gave us what we wanted. With a smirk, Kevin talks about our society's obsession with scandal. It's like Michael Haneke's Funny Games. No, not as self-aware and fourth wall breaking, but this film has the same objective. To show us what we want and then tell us we're horrible for watching because it encourages repeated events. When real tragedies occur such as the one at Virginia Tech University in 2007, the news becomes too big not to hear about. We all become captivated. We want to know why someone would do such a thing? Who it was, what he looks like, what did he like to do.
The only thing worse than such natural infatuations are copy cats wanting similar attention. They think they're exposing our society. Maybe they think they can change things by creating more chaos. Getting into the psyche of someone like Kevin and understanding them is near impossible. By the end of the film, even Kevin, years removed from his crimes, sees how worthless and harmful his actions have become. He's no longer pleased. He's just lost and desires the comfort of his mother. A comfort he felt for a brief time as a child, but wouldn't allow himself to enjoy.
Call it subtle filmmaking if you want. I'll call it unconvincing and tedious.
The bewildering narrative reminded me of Martha Marcy May Marlene, a better film I recently watched. In that film the jumbled story added to the effect and the transitions were cleverly crafted. Its a beautiful accomplishment by the director to make the audience feel just as confused and as tense as Martha. We become very much a part of the story. In We Need to Talk About Kevin, the similar narrative choice just tries to make up for the lack of plot.
We Need to Talk About Kevin?...how about let's not. Real life versions of Kevin don't deserve the attention they want from us and neither does this art-house failure. Afterwards, all I could think of was the fact that the director had to make a young child actor act insane so they could tell me this story. I think I'm more disturbed by that than the actions on screen.
Grade: 2 out of 5
Travis Young - I've always found film criticism to be like a fun competition. I love reading other reviews and having discussions on movies. The ability ...
