Review of We Need to Talk about Kevin

Based on Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, is a

British American drama which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.

Directed by Lynne Ramsey (Ratcatcher, Movern Caller) the film focuses on a

mother struggling with coming to terms with her son's actions, after he

carryied out a killing spree at his local school.

Tilda Swindon (Adaptation) plays Eva Khatchadourian, J. C. Reilly (Magnolia)

plays her husband Franklin and Kevin, her son, is played Rocky Duer as the

infant, Jasper Newell as the child and Ezra Miller (Afterschool) as the

disturbed teenager.

We Need to Talk About Kevin, consists of a series of flashbacks which have a

Macbeth-like leitmotif of “all the waters of Arabia could not wash the blood off

these hands.” The film is steeped in blood imagery, from the early scene

where Eva the valiant traveller, is depicted at the Valencian festival, drenched

in the pulped tomatoes of La Tomatina, and is hoisted above the crowd in a

scene that verges on the grotesque to the ensuing Columbine-style shootings

at the High School. As the film flits from the past to the present, red is ever

present - whether it is the shot of Eva in the supermarket with the rows of

tomato soup piled high around her, or the jam in Kevin’s sandwich which

oozes menacingly out. As well as the fire-engine red paint dripping off walls

there is a recurring theme of noise. So the assault of primary colours is

compounded by the demonic screeching of Kevin, the jack-hammers on the

streets of New York, lawn mowers and Kevin as he attempts to hoover up his

younger sister’s hair.

As Kevin appropriates sociopath status the viewer is presented with the

emotional maelstrom of Eva’s world as the sins of the son fall upon the

mother.

Brenda Liddy © 2011