We Need to Talk About Kevin

*Spoilers ahead*

I read the book We Need to Talk About Kevin and I remember being slightly underwhelmed by it. Sure, it made me think about some things, but overall I found it a little bit manipulative and the writing style was offputting. The film version shoots very much for awards-season glory and was oddly ignored by the Oscars, despite having a great performance from Tilda Swinton and a few other interesting touches. BUT... and this is a big 'but'... having found the much more diplomatic book a bit manipulative I found the film to be almost foully overbearing in the stance it takes on shooting massacres at schools. This is understandably a controversial issue, and the way the film deals with it is downright offensive.

Kevin (played by three different actors at three different ages) is a boy destined to mastermind an act of unspeakable horror. Told firmly from the point of view of his mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton), we see the antagonistic relationship that grows between herself and her child as the film outlays the road to ruin. Eva actually suspects quite early on that there is something wrong with Kevin, but her good-natured husband (John C. Reilly) buys into Kevin's "Gee Dad, swell!" routine and this drives a wedge into their marriage.

Firstly, this is a real button-pusher. The film (like the book) favours a non-linear approach to the narrative that shows both consequences and causes before the actual act itself. It's a story that dares to take on the staggering why? of such events, and this is probably why We Need to Talk About Kevin (the book) drew so much attention in the first place. Unfortunately, the nature vs. nurture subtext of the novel gets dropped completely in favour of something akin to psychological horror, complete with a recurring blood-splatter motif (represented by red paint, jam on bread, etc). This is Rosemary's Baby all grown up.


The book advocates the idea that some people just shouldn't have kids, suggesting that Eva may have simply been an unfit mother. There's a little bit of that in the film, but it's played more as a red herring to keep the viewer guessing. The book's element of standing on the fence regarding the existence of evil is lost completely in the film. Kevin is flat out evil in this movie. Even as a five year old he's clearly a criminal genius, a kid who is capable of doing clever things (like going to the toilet, memorising his numbers) but only 'rewards' his mother when she breaks his arm in a fit of anger ("Most honest thing you ever did"). This stuff happens in the book as well, but it's very much all left up to the reader's perspective and the possibility of Eva being an unreliable narrator. I'm not saying this is entirely achievable in a film version, but if you decide to portray this kid as inherently evil then there are certain other issues at stake. On the most basic level, the idea that a toddler is smart enough to structure his whole life around antagonising his mother is inherently ludicrous.

Here's the thing, if there is something fundamentally wrong with Kevin, then what is it? What made him that way? Isn't it a little irresponsible to simply proclaim that he's pure evil? What kind of answer is that? We might as well bury our heads in the sand if we're going to say that all spree killings are the result of people being born evil. It's irresponsible, and that's what I find offensive about this film. The book had the good sense to leave it up to the reader to decide, but the film isn't clever enough to do that. At best it advocates a lack of parental and societal responsibility for these kinds of tragedies. The film also avoids the gun issue altogether by having Kevin's spree killing achieved by bow and arrow. Ridiculous, right? Unfortunately we can't blame the film for that one as it's actually in the book.

It's a well-made film. It's accomplished, different, well-acted... it's just a shame that they couldn't nail the complexity of the book's central moral issue. Also, the whole thing builds to this one horrifying moment, it's all about giving this shocking event context, and then we don't even really get to see it. From a filmmaking perspective, that's as unforgiveable as Kevin's murders.

NOTE: The title of this film refers to the style of the novel, which is epistolary and written in the second person. This gets lost in the translation from book to film.

DIRECTOR: Lynne Ramsay
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear, based on a book by Lionel Shriver.
KEY ACTORS: Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, John C. Reilly, Jasper Newell, Rock Duer

RELATED TEXTS
- The 2003 novel We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.
- Director-writer Lynne Ramsay previously made the British films Morvern Callar and Ratcatcher.
- Ezra Miller (who plays the teenaged version of Kevin) previously starred in the disturbing schoolyard drama Afterschool.
- Films about spree killings: Elephant, Incendiary, Beautiful Boy and Higher Learning.

AWARDS
AFIs - nominated for Best International Film, Best International Actress (Tilda Swinton), Best International Direction and Best International Screenplay.
BAFTAs - nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress (Swinton).
Cannes Film Festival - nominated for the Palmes d'Or.
Golden Globes - nominated for Best Actress - Drama (Swinton).