Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton) attempts to deal with troubled events of her past. Her son Kevin (astounding breakthrough performance by Ezra Miller) is in jail, locked up for a horrendous crime, while she herself is being ostracised by the community for the atrocities committed. The events are presented in countless retrospectives, which fling us in time from the moment of Kevin's conception through his childhood up until the tragic events, that seem in retrospect a foregone conclusion.
The inspirational inventive construction of the movie with the past intertwining and adding layers of understanding underlines the technical, directional and conceptual brilliance of the movie. Flawless in this regard it also verges on the brink of perfection from the cast as Swinton, Miller as well as John C. Reilly (playing the husband and father) perform stellarly. All in all the packaging is sheer excellence and a great example of superb filmmaking, so the underlying question remains: So where did it all go wrong? The key problem with "We Must Talk About Kevin" stems from questions of integrity. After uncovering several layers it does seem like a pretty banal thriller about a devil-child parading around as a psychological analysis of a murderer's upbringing, thus severely hitting the credibility of a movie with severe artistic inclinations. The psychotic deranged Kevin comes off as pre-fabricated and pre-destined, much like a protagonist better fitting to movies like "Rosemary's Baby" or "Omen", than to a more cerebral take on the origins of murder, giving the story a resounding false note, which deducts from the experience. So despite touching a lot of emotional strings the distant awkwardness of Kevin's background lowers feasibility and hi-jacks it into "Scream" territory.
The biggest glitch originates from the flimsy portrayal from the early years of Eva's motherhood. Issues are suggested, like Eva's persisting post-delivery depression and blaming Kevin for the end of her freedom, which result in ambiguity towards motherhood. Nonetheless filming shots of Eva getting frustrated by her baby crying is rather counterproductive - it's hard to find a parent out there, who at one time or another didn't have the urge to throw his endlessly screaming child out the window. May not be popular dinner conversation, but that is the reality of parenthood. From this occurrence we jump several years forward, where Kevin still uses diapers and persistently ignores his mother in an already defiant, almost psychotic, fashion. Only in a moment of weakness (due to sickness) does Kevin open up to his mother and shows her affection. Henceforth the overall credibility of the movie falters, where a five-eight year old with Damien-like eyes is cynical and scheming enough to pretend to have fun with his father, while throwing meaningful evil glances at his mother.
Children psychology is all over the place and lacks some serious background research or at least further story exposure of the early years, but a child of that age is not developed enough to show such anti-social, psychotic behaviour, unless you are in horror-movie-land. I understand the relationship may have been dysfunctional, but the mental acuity given to a toddler is beyond reason. All in all the background story for Kevin's upbringing seems laboured and rushed, overly focused on 'the finished product' and his hateful, sadistic behaviour. Not enough is actually dedicated to causes, while the loving caring father figure seems counter-intuitive to Kevin ending up a cold and ruthless sociopath. All in all the whole story seems in slight contradiction with the premeditated 'bad seed' actions of the son, as in the ultimate break-down the imprisoned Kevin is unable to find reason behind his murderous activities, ergo suggesting that all he essentially wanted was his motherly love. Something that Eva willingly offers her son.
Overall - despite the directional ingenuity evident on screen - Lynne Ramsay fails to acknowledge certain traits of film regarding presentation of reality. The director does attempt to portray the happenings as part of Eva's memories. But whereas in a book a careful selection of words make subjective perception indecisive, picture forces the viewer to accept the flashbacks of the mother as the factual occurrence. In order to instill uncertainty a counterpoint is necessary, be it different perspectives of third persons or even reenacting the same memory several times, but offering variations.
Essentially the movie aims to invoke questions about the causality of sociopathic behaviour. Is it a 'bad seed' or a question of breeding? Eva's ambivalence towards her maternity is suggested as a potential key reason, however this is indecisive due to how early in life Kevin is presented as disturbed and unsettled.
The movie would have also benefited from actually delivering on the film's title and talking about Kevin. Instead we are filled with an overdose of long shots, gazes and supposedly self-explanatory sequences. All in all a disappointing experience given the immense promise of the underlying concept, which result in a soulless journey. Shame someone didn't do their homework and just took ill-advised "Psycho" short-cuts.
That said - if it didn't pretend to be cerebral and meaningful, it would have gotten excellent grades from me as a straight-out thriller.
The inspirational inventive construction of the movie with the past intertwining and adding layers of understanding underlines the technical, directional and conceptual brilliance of the movie. Flawless in this regard it also verges on the brink of perfection from the cast as Swinton, Miller as well as John C. Reilly (playing the husband and father) perform stellarly. All in all the packaging is sheer excellence and a great example of superb filmmaking, so the underlying question remains: So where did it all go wrong? The key problem with "We Must Talk About Kevin" stems from questions of integrity. After uncovering several layers it does seem like a pretty banal thriller about a devil-child parading around as a psychological analysis of a murderer's upbringing, thus severely hitting the credibility of a movie with severe artistic inclinations. The psychotic deranged Kevin comes off as pre-fabricated and pre-destined, much like a protagonist better fitting to movies like "Rosemary's Baby" or "Omen", than to a more cerebral take on the origins of murder, giving the story a resounding false note, which deducts from the experience. So despite touching a lot of emotional strings the distant awkwardness of Kevin's background lowers feasibility and hi-jacks it into "Scream" territory.
The biggest glitch originates from the flimsy portrayal from the early years of Eva's motherhood. Issues are suggested, like Eva's persisting post-delivery depression and blaming Kevin for the end of her freedom, which result in ambiguity towards motherhood. Nonetheless filming shots of Eva getting frustrated by her baby crying is rather counterproductive - it's hard to find a parent out there, who at one time or another didn't have the urge to throw his endlessly screaming child out the window. May not be popular dinner conversation, but that is the reality of parenthood. From this occurrence we jump several years forward, where Kevin still uses diapers and persistently ignores his mother in an already defiant, almost psychotic, fashion. Only in a moment of weakness (due to sickness) does Kevin open up to his mother and shows her affection. Henceforth the overall credibility of the movie falters, where a five-eight year old with Damien-like eyes is cynical and scheming enough to pretend to have fun with his father, while throwing meaningful evil glances at his mother.
Children psychology is all over the place and lacks some serious background research or at least further story exposure of the early years, but a child of that age is not developed enough to show such anti-social, psychotic behaviour, unless you are in horror-movie-land. I understand the relationship may have been dysfunctional, but the mental acuity given to a toddler is beyond reason. All in all the background story for Kevin's upbringing seems laboured and rushed, overly focused on 'the finished product' and his hateful, sadistic behaviour. Not enough is actually dedicated to causes, while the loving caring father figure seems counter-intuitive to Kevin ending up a cold and ruthless sociopath. All in all the whole story seems in slight contradiction with the premeditated 'bad seed' actions of the son, as in the ultimate break-down the imprisoned Kevin is unable to find reason behind his murderous activities, ergo suggesting that all he essentially wanted was his motherly love. Something that Eva willingly offers her son.
Overall - despite the directional ingenuity evident on screen - Lynne Ramsay fails to acknowledge certain traits of film regarding presentation of reality. The director does attempt to portray the happenings as part of Eva's memories. But whereas in a book a careful selection of words make subjective perception indecisive, picture forces the viewer to accept the flashbacks of the mother as the factual occurrence. In order to instill uncertainty a counterpoint is necessary, be it different perspectives of third persons or even reenacting the same memory several times, but offering variations.
Essentially the movie aims to invoke questions about the causality of sociopathic behaviour. Is it a 'bad seed' or a question of breeding? Eva's ambivalence towards her maternity is suggested as a potential key reason, however this is indecisive due to how early in life Kevin is presented as disturbed and unsettled.
The movie would have also benefited from actually delivering on the film's title and talking about Kevin. Instead we are filled with an overdose of long shots, gazes and supposedly self-explanatory sequences. All in all a disappointing experience given the immense promise of the underlying concept, which result in a soulless journey. Shame someone didn't do their homework and just took ill-advised "Psycho" short-cuts.
That said - if it didn't pretend to be cerebral and meaningful, it would have gotten excellent grades from me as a straight-out thriller.