Quick Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin (2012)

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
JUNE 26, 2013

Eerie and psychological, “We Need To Talk About Kevin” is one-half “The Omen,” one-half “Beautiful Boy” combining the horrific events of a school shooting with the deteriorating home life. Eva (Tilda Swinton) is a mother, and Kevin is a detached child, who may or may not be the devil’s spawn. The director Lynne Ramsay hits gold by never actually touching on that idea and alluding to anything else. There’s something psychologically wrong with Kevin, as he blackmails and relentlessly plays mind games with Eva, but acting normal around his father, Franklin (John C. Reilly).

Tilda Swinton delivers one of the best performances of 2012, with her eye-ing nature and edginess boosting the film’s horrific platform. The child actor playing Kevin and Ezra Miller playing older Kevin both create the perfect embodiment of tangible evil in Kevin, projecting a believability yet untamed evil simultaneously. Without these pivotal performances, the eeriness of the film would dissipate quickly. The darkness that this narrative hits on is chilling, allowing for an old school horror feel that is hard to recreate. The staggering story structure also provides for disorientation needed to complete the spine-tingling mood throughout. “We Need To Talk About Kevin” is one of the most impressive bits of pseudo-horror in recent memory.