We Need to Talk About Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin

(MA) Hopscotch DVD/BD

This movie did absolutely nothing whatsoever to enhance my desire to have children.

Eva is by all accounts a perfectly average middle-class woman. Well travelled with a good job, she settles down to play a role she doesn’t quite seem to fit, but resigns herself to nonetheless: the role of motherhood.

Upon discovering she is pregnant, it is apparent that Eva is not thrilled. But she does the best she can.

As a baby her son Kevin cries and cries. As a toddler he unnerves his mother with his constant glare and apparent refusal to talk.

Eva isn’t the most engaged or enthusiastic mother, but even so, it is clear that Kevin seems to have born difficult. He is manipulative, calculating and one might even go so far to suggest that even as a child, he is evil.

His father, however, lives in denial: “Boys will be boys.”

Ezra Miller is chilling as teenage Kevin, who is uncannily clever, cocksure, and scariest of all, unnervingly charming.

There is no real reason for Kevin to be as unceasingly cruel as he is. And this cruelty is mostly focused upon his long-suffering mother, who stands by helplessly. All of the smaller torments are nothing, though, in comparison for what will be Kevin’s final act. The consequences of which are not only devastating, but also incredibly disturbing.

Directed by Lynne Ramsay the screenplay is adapted from the novel of the same name, written by Lionel Shriver.

The film’s disjointed, often hallucinogenic style reflects its disturbing content, and constant flashes between past and present make for uncomfortable viewing that raises many questions.

Should parents be blamed for their child’s wrongdoing? How big a part does free will play? How young is too young to “know better”?

The questions are intriguing, the performances mesmerising, but be warned: this is not for the faint of heart.

Jasmine Edwards

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