WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

UK/US, 2011, 112 minutes, Colour.
Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell.
Directed by Lynne Ramsay.

If you are looking for a film with difficult themes, offering a challenge and something to reflect on, We Need to Talk about Kevin is probably just the film.

It is based on the best-selling novel by Lionel Shriver who has given her imprimatur to the film version.

Lynne Ramsay has directed arthouse films, Ratcatcher and Morvern Caller. She brings this sensibility to the present film, making more demands on the audience through a complex structure, akin to a jigsaw puzzle or mosaic of events in the life of Eva whose son Kevin is. We need to be alert all the time to register at what stage of Eva’s story were are at, noticing her hair, her clothes, her manner. At times, we are back before her marriage when she used to travel. We are the beginning of her marriage and the birth of Kevin. We can build up a linear awareness of Kevin growing from a troublesome and continually crying baby to a malevolent child of four and six and finally into the cold, calculating and malicious teenager. But, we do not see it all in order.

While this is sometimes difficult, it enables us to build up the complexities of Eva’s character, her love for Kevin despite his treatment of her, her attempts to communicate with him. It is the same for Kevin as we piece together his life and follow the progress of his animosity towards his mother. Of course, there are the perennial questions about the influence of nature and nurture.

Then there is Eva’s husband, Franklin, who loves his children, with Kevin playing up to him, but who cannot understand his wife’s feelings towards her son. One hopes that all will be well when a daughter is born, but that is not to be.

For those who do not know how it will end, we are shown some of the outcomes very early in the film and the treatment of Eva by parents at Kevin’s school. Given the violent nature of American society and its right to bear arms culture, we are not surprised at what Kevin does – but we are still horrified.

At one stage, this reviewer (used to dramatic shocks) jumped and shuddered at one particular plot development that was in no way anticipated. All the more shocking for that and in its context.

Tilda Swinton is a persuasive actress. She makes Eva a sympathetic character, though there is some detachment about her. As the butt of Kevin’s animosity, she suffers a great deal. (The scene where she takes her wailing baby near men drilling in the street to drown out the baby’s cries makes an impact.) John C. Reilly brings his talent to the role of Franklin. While Ezra Miller is the teenage Kevin who is the focus of the crisis, the two children who portray him as a boy (and they could pass for his brothers) have been directed to act in such a way that the cumulative effect of Kevin’s behaviour is credible and horrifying.

1. The acclamation for the novel? The film as an adaptation? The acclaim for the film and performances?

2. The American setting and characters, universal themes and message? The American town, homes, workplaces, offices, schools? Authentic atmosphere?

3. The structure of the film: the pieces, the jigsaw, the shift in times? Eva’s memories? The links and themes and evoking memories? Associations? Connections? The overall effect? Eva’s perspective?

4. The title, expectations, Eva’s pregnancy, with the pregnant women in the bath scene? The birth sequences? Eva’s reaction to the birth of Kevin? Eva and Franklin as parents? The baby, the continued crying, her exasperation, her standing near the drilling to drown out the cries of the child? Franklin and his not noticing the child being upset? The effect on Eva, as a person, as a mother?

5. The motif of red: the fiesta, Eva covered in red, the theme of blood, the covering of the house, the car, her cleaning them? Washing? The massacre and the blood? The effect of the motif?

6. Kevin as a child, not responding to his mother, malicious, knowing what he was doing, the refusal to roll the ball? Going to the doctor, the doctor saying he was not deaf? Wilful, smiling? The scene with the counting and the numbers? His face, shrewd and calculating? Turning to greet his father with forced joy? Hating his mother?

7. Franklin as pleasant, ordinary, the meeting with Eva, falling in love, Franklin as a father, getting the new house, playing with his son, arguing with Eva, not blaming Kevin, Celia and the pregnancy, his initial reaction, wary? His love for his daughter, playing with her, dancing with her? Her injury? Kevin’s lie about his mother? Not blaming Kevin, exasperating Eva? The gift of the bow? Practising with his son?

8. Eva and her life, her past, the travelling, the workplace and her skills, the travel agent? At home, caring for the baby? With the young Kevin, trying to get him to bond, to speak, to throw the ball, the counting episode? The older Kevin? The book-signing? The request for quality time? The mini-golf, his eating the chicken, not eating in the restaurant? His language towards his mother? Her response to his being clever? School, talk about school, reaction? His overhearing the discussion about the separation?

9. Eva and her coping, at work, getting the message about the massacre, going to the school, discovering the truth, leaving, her return home, the audience thinking that Franklin and Celia had left, the shock discovery of their bodies in the yard? Her coping?

10. Kevin, the bow, at the school, firing at the students, his bowing and his wanting acclaim? The jail sequences, his mother visiting and not talking? At eighteen, his hair? His mother asking why? His statement that he wasn’t sure – a key to the film?

11. The aftermath of the massacre, people attacking Eva in the street? Going for the job? Her work, wanting the time off, the celebration and the invitation to the dance, the insult of the fellow worker? Her being hit and abused?

12. Eva, alone, two years after the massacre, going to the jail to see Kevin, still loving him?

13. Tilda Swinton’s performance, the audience sharing the experience with her, attitudes towards Kevin and his behaviour, attitudes, attitudes towards Franklin? Her love for Celia, the injury to the eye, Kevin’s responsibility, his telling the lie to save his mother? The fact that he had killed his father and sister but not his mother?

14. The discussion about nature and nurture?