Sunday, February 5, 2012

"WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN" - MOVIE REVIEW


Still from We Need to Talk About Kevin
We Need to Talk About Kevin, based on the Novel of the same title by Lionel Shriver, is about a Woman named Eva (Tilda Swinton) whose free-spirited dreams of traveling the World are thwarted prematurely when she meets successful Businessman Franklin (John C. Reilly).  Soon she becomes pregnant and is forced to settle down. As time passes, we realize that something isn't quite right with her Son Kevin (played earlier by Jasper Newell and later by Ezra Miller), learning at young age to rebel and manipulate his Parents. Kevin ultimately goes on to massacre students at his High School, leaving Eva tormented psychologically by the aftermath of his actions.

Easily one of her finest performances yet, Swinton sadly was omitted from this year's list of Oscar nominees for her work in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Miller's breakthrough portrayal of a Sociopath also is resonant and authentic.  The bone-chilling Thriller is the rare type of Film that haunts you months after seeing it and ultimately, you find yourself obsessing over action and consequence. Is there anything that could have been done to prevent the dire outcome of this sordid tale of Mother and Son, or was their fate sealed from the start, we wonder?

Director Lynne Ramsay skilfully manages to keep much of the gore out of sight, instead opting for a more cerebral experience using images of tomato soup, splattered red paint, crushed lychees which just as effectively tell the story for us.  Easily, one of the more moving and memorable Films to surface in the past while.  eOne Films releases We Need to Talk About Kevin on February 10, 2012.

See Photos of Swinton and Miller in Toronto last Fall for TIFF: