Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin

                                 I'll 'Be Talking About' How Amazing This Movie Is


                  We've seen many "creepy child" films over the years, such as The Good Son, The Omen, Orphan, and The Bad Seed, but hardly any of them are made quite like this film. While the aforementioned films deal with the horrific acts that the children commit, We Need To Talk About Kevin focuses more on the mother's guilt and struggling with the aftermath of a gruesome act that her child commits and shows what happens when parents really distance themselves from their children.

                  Story:
                 We Need To Talk About Kevin is about a former travel writer named Eva Katchadourian (Tilda Swinton) who has difficulty loving her child Kevin as he grows older. She tries to convince her husband Franklin (John C. Reilly) that their child is going off the deep end but he quickly dismisses her claims.

                 What I Liked About It:
                One thing that I did like about the film was the actors. In particular, two of them. Tilda Swinton gives a terrific performance that is the most dynamic. At first her character is a distressed housewife whose son disputes her cheap attempts at showing affection, and towards the end, she becomes an introverted, frigidly scared woman who is isolated from those around her. Another actor that I thought was outstanding was Ezra Miller, who plays the older version of Kevin. What makes his performance so great is how manipulative he is. He manipulates his father into thinking he is a normal teenager, shows little interest in his mother's attempts to bond with him, but what his parents don't know is the monster underneath.

               Another thing that I liked was the direction from Lynne Ramsey. Throughout the film, Ramsey incorporates the color red and uses it as a symbol of danger and even guilt. Like in the scenes of the aftermath of Kevin's gruesome act where Eva lives alone, her house is splattered with red and she tries to wipe it off, which to me is a metaphor for "wiping the red" or the horrors from her past.

               What I Didn't Like About It:
             While I did enjoy the film, at first I thought how the film was very jumpy was kind of distracting but then I eventually didn't mind it. Other than that, there is nothing else I hate about this movie.

               Consensus:
              Overall, We Need To Talk About Kevin is a smoothly-paced, yet atmospheric and chilling drama. It is a film that may not specifically be categorized as a horror film, but it certainly feels like one as, like with the "creepy child" movies that came before it, it shows that it's not just adults that can be scary.

Rating: 4/5