From the outset, it's clear that We Need to talk about Kevin is deliberately obscure, and it never allows the viewer to access any kind of clarity of thought. What it is, is a tutorial in editorial precision and screen stylistics, both overseen by Lynne Ramsay, the director, who has worked this routine previously in Morvern Callar and Ratcatcher.
Eva and Franklin (Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly) are the proud parents of Kevin, who is played as a teenager by Ezra Miller. Kevin is a somewhat strange boy who displays incredible hostility towards his mom. While she struggles with Kevin's ever increasing destructive attitude, Eva begins to find herself fearing her son, as watches horrified as his behavior deteriorates and he plays off his parents with outrageous manipulations.
As Kevin grows into a young man, his troubling behavior reaches new heights and becomes injurious, and poor Eva is driven to the brink of insanity as her domestic equilibrium is constantly bombarded with torpedoes of hate from her darling offspring. When one unimaginably horrific act of violence occurs, Eva is left a wreck, trying to piece back together the life she hardly enjoyed in the first place.
For Eva, motherhood is a curse that she doesn't know how to break. Adapted from the novel by Lionel Shriver, the story of 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' has seen some radical reformation by Ramsay. The expected tension building suspense structure has been ditched in favor of a rollercoaster of bite-sized pieces that emanate both fantasy and experience, and with leap back and forth between the past and the present.
This is how we learn Eva's story, and witness her increasing uneasiness and apprehension when she is around her son. This jumbles approach gives Ramsay the freedom to play around with editorial techniques and brave and unflinching cinematography. She greatly favors the color red, and it assumes a prominent and symbolic position throughout the movie.
You are hit from all sides when you want 'We Need to Talk about Kevin', and your senses are greatly assaulted. The film makers have obviously attempted to create an environment brimming with unease, from studying a miserable Eva trying to deal with he infant son's incessant crying, watching him develop his deceptions as a child and his mature gift of disruption when a teen.
Threatening elements are established, yet the movie remains frustratingly ephemeral, and seems unwilling to portray the menace that would better illustrate the growing evil within Kevin. You have to feel for Tilda Swinton, a fine actor who does the best she can with what she is given, which is very little. Ramsay is far too heavy handed with the character of Eva and gives us an emotional overload.
Overall, 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' is a very patchy affair. The opportunity was here to create the most horrendous child since Damien, but that wasn't picked up on, and Kevin instead comes across as almost cartoon like. There are good parts granted, but far too many bad ones to create a balance. If you have time to waste go see if this movie, if not, wait for the DVD.
Watch Movies Online [http://www.watch-movies--online.org/12844/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-2011/m]
Eva and Franklin (Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly) are the proud parents of Kevin, who is played as a teenager by Ezra Miller. Kevin is a somewhat strange boy who displays incredible hostility towards his mom. While she struggles with Kevin's ever increasing destructive attitude, Eva begins to find herself fearing her son, as watches horrified as his behavior deteriorates and he plays off his parents with outrageous manipulations.
As Kevin grows into a young man, his troubling behavior reaches new heights and becomes injurious, and poor Eva is driven to the brink of insanity as her domestic equilibrium is constantly bombarded with torpedoes of hate from her darling offspring. When one unimaginably horrific act of violence occurs, Eva is left a wreck, trying to piece back together the life she hardly enjoyed in the first place.
For Eva, motherhood is a curse that she doesn't know how to break. Adapted from the novel by Lionel Shriver, the story of 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' has seen some radical reformation by Ramsay. The expected tension building suspense structure has been ditched in favor of a rollercoaster of bite-sized pieces that emanate both fantasy and experience, and with leap back and forth between the past and the present.
This is how we learn Eva's story, and witness her increasing uneasiness and apprehension when she is around her son. This jumbles approach gives Ramsay the freedom to play around with editorial techniques and brave and unflinching cinematography. She greatly favors the color red, and it assumes a prominent and symbolic position throughout the movie.
You are hit from all sides when you want 'We Need to Talk about Kevin', and your senses are greatly assaulted. The film makers have obviously attempted to create an environment brimming with unease, from studying a miserable Eva trying to deal with he infant son's incessant crying, watching him develop his deceptions as a child and his mature gift of disruption when a teen.
Threatening elements are established, yet the movie remains frustratingly ephemeral, and seems unwilling to portray the menace that would better illustrate the growing evil within Kevin. You have to feel for Tilda Swinton, a fine actor who does the best she can with what she is given, which is very little. Ramsay is far too heavy handed with the character of Eva and gives us an emotional overload.
Overall, 'We Need to Talk about Kevin' is a very patchy affair. The opportunity was here to create the most horrendous child since Damien, but that wasn't picked up on, and Kevin instead comes across as almost cartoon like. There are good parts granted, but far too many bad ones to create a balance. If you have time to waste go see if this movie, if not, wait for the DVD.
Watch Movies Online [http://www.watch-movies--online.org/12844/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin-2011/m]