Movie Review – We Need To Talk About Kevin

Armando Pablo, Reporter

    The film, We Need To Talk About Kevin is a great psychological thriller that embarks on the story of Kevin and his family. When Kevin was born he was just an adorable and loving baby but when it comes to his mother, he decided to make her life a living hell. Growing up, Kevin did everything in his power to make his mother hate him, for example: As a baby, he would cry all the time but only with his mother, as a kid, Kevin insisted on throwing his food when he was only with his mother, he would even reject his mothers attention and neglect her instead. Time goes on and Kevin is all grown up. The rest of the film consists of flashbacks and flash forwards into the future which later reveals a shocking ending.

    Throughout the film, the director Lynne Ramsay uses some imagery to represent the meaning of something bigger. In the beginning we see Eva laying in a pool of red cranberries, later we see a red ball, red paint splatter all over Eva’s house, Red target, red lights and more. Red can be represented as anger and love but in this case we see a lot of anger. For example, the red ball is a symbol of Eva and Kevin’s relationship, how they pass the ball back and forth but as it goes on it gets more aggressive and Eva gets more frustrated. 

    The film definitely plays on real life horror, from just having a child that tries to make you want to die everyday – but it shows what goes on in kid’s heads when they are exposed to something. We Need To Talk About Kevin didn’t win any awards itself but Tilda Swinton won three awards as actress of the year. The film received mixed reviews such as, “One of the most interesting facets of the film was that it showed how much power children can hold and execute over adults if they are given the opportunity.” In general, I think this is a brilliant “expose” if you will, I agree with the first review that children can make adults succumb to them if they are given the opportunity. Definitely a must see and I would definitely watch it again.