Community Guidelines | This cycle is beautifully written and acted by Swinton, so much that you can't help but empathize with her despite her own assurances that every drop of blood her son ever spilt is on her hands, an image weaved throughout the movie. Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2021/Final edition), NEW TOURNAMENT: [PPE] RYM Picks the Most Outstanding Acting Performances in Cinematic History, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2020 edition), Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2019 edition), Dark/Sinister films that have upbeat music during the credits, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2018 edition), RYM's Preferred Female Performances: 2011, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2017 edition), United Kingdom, United States, 35mm, Color, Dolby Stereo, Literary Adaptation, Artificial Eye, Code Red, Oscilloscope Pictures. He answers, I used to think I knew why, and now Im not so sure. This small act of hesitant humility is followed by Kevins embrace of his mother which can only be likened to the embrace received by that infamous scriptural progeny upon his arrival home. KATY: Yeah, I was so jealous, because I really loved it. Though Ramsay does away with Eva as a first-person narrator in the film, she still retains Eva's point-of-view throughout. We see it in her bond with the more amiable Celia. Matters worsen when she becomes pregnant with a daughter. American release: January 27, 2012. As she leaves, a troupe of tiny ballerinas in tutus run past her. His final act of brutality a school massacre in addition to murdering his father and sister destroys any semblance of normalcy for Eva. Eva apparently thought her early life was on the right track and tells her screaming baby boy she would frankly rather be back in Paris than changing his diaper. Nature refers to how they were born, while nurture refers to how they were raised. Like Lady Macbeth, she tries to scrub the guilt off her hands. For Kevin, maternal love and attention have become completely conflated with disgust and fear. Eva and Franklin never seek psychiatric help for their son; they can't talk about Kevin without fighting. Shortly after, Eva goes back to the house. When he breaks his arm? If you look one level deeper it's clear that Kevin was deeply and horribly emotionally abused by both of his parents, and in a genuinely loving family he would not have turned out the way he did. Kevin replies that he thought he knew why but now hes not sure anymore. In We Need to Talk about Kevin, Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence. For mothers always seem to be on trial. Don't post randomness/off-topic comments. Now, mommy wakes up every morning and wishes she was in France! The cast ensemble, with Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, and Ezra Miller in a menacing role, cannot be praised enough. Art and Divine Beauty: An Antidote to the Winter Blues, The Prodigal Son: How to Overcome the 3 Lies We Tell Ourselves. What is lupus, an autoimmune disease diagnosed in Selena Gomez causing her weight gain? Eva often looks like she's in a state of shock. The brooding tone of the narrative prepares the audience for a devastating ending, but in hindsight, some of you may have seen it coming. She created a relationship which encouraged him to act out as horribly as possible to get the most honest reactions from her, because she only ever showed him her real emotions when she was disgusted. Ramsay regularly cuts to a scene where Eva is driving her car past flashing police lights toward the scene of some tragedy. Swinton gives an outstanding performance, somehow managing to repeatedly convey implacability and vulnerability in the same moment. and our Selena Gomez recently opened up on how the autoimmune condition is affecting her weight due to water retention from all the medication in her recent Tik-Tok live stream. Not here. For more information, please see our We see it in the wall of canned tomatoes that play backdrop to Evas anxiety attack in a supermarket, and the Cabernets she drowns her sorrows with. True paternal love would have been expressed as abiding concern for the man his son could grow up to be if there really was a danger of mental illness, and result in the appropriate physical and mental health care to avoid a catastrophe. About | Don't comment just to troll/provoke. "We Need to Talk About Kevin" leans into that debate, showcasing a resentful mother, a passive father, and a child with an untreated mental illness. But when he just sits there frowning, she expresses real disgust towards him. In front of his mother, Kevin is often a difficult, menacing and unresponsive boy. By provoking her, Kevin is able to get some precious emotional honesty out of her. Written by Julia Wolf. The most horrendous thing for her to stomach is not that his misanthropy and violence is really exotic and foreign; the thing that is really horrendous is that she recognises it only too well, because it comes from her. So, you kind of draw from that, but then, you also think about just putting yourself in that position too. Business, Economics, and Finance. Instead, it's a personal story about a family or more specifically, a mother (an excellent Swinton) and her troubled son. ROHAN: Since Jentorra is the leader of the rebellion, was there anything specificyou tried to channel or watch to get into her headspace? When Eva goes to meet Kevin in the detention center, she asks him the same question. SPOILERS AHEAD. She isn't even really at the center of it; that position is occupied by her son, Kevin, who is an instinctive sadist with a gift for knowing exactly how to wound her, reject her, deceive her and make her soul bleed. Fast forward to fifteen year old Kevin, and we can see that this habit has become his worldview. None of that takes anything away from yet another deeply felt performance by the always-interesting Swinton. KATY: We had this whole scene where we're all cheering at the end kind of thing. An early scene shows Eva apparently participating in an orgy in a lake of blood. Now I'm not so sure." It must be something like this to have a nervous breakdown. The kid was screaming nonstop from the go, as infant. Growing up with a cold mother does not turn one into mass murdered either. For much of the film, she lives with her husband, son and daughter in an expensive suburban home, and when we realize they've lived there for several years, we begin to wonder, how can four people occupy a home for over a decade and not accumulate anything? Does she ever. Yet it is in those infrequent instances of relief, conversion and mercy that the film finds its identity and direction. While Eva is shown throughout the film to be indifferent toward her son, Kevin's actions are fueled by his desire to spite her. Her only crime was perhaps hurrying into the role before she was ready. She asks Kevin why he didn't kill her. You couldnt have possibly thought that seeing someone eat lychee would be so distressing, but Ezra Miller makes it happen. Before the film opens, the character referred to in the title of Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, at the age of 15, has massacred a number of his fellow schoolmates. The kind of clothes one chooses is also indicative of ones social status. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. To rate, slide your finger across the stars from left to right. An unshakeable experience and a daring experiment in film form, Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin challenged conventional wisdom on what makes for a good adaptation. So, seeing Kathryn, to me, her character Cassie was just someone who didn't understand the reality of the situation. But it's also pretty surface level. ROHAN: Jentorra does have a comics counterpart, did you draw on those stories to inform your backstory or did you work with Peyton to create anew backstory for the film? How would I behave if basically the weight of a literal realm was on my shoulders? She makes one feel her strung to the breaking point tension in scene after scene. His reply: "You don't want to kill your audience.". By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver. The real horror in the movie is society's dogmatic conception of motherhood, and the pressure to live up to it. The white curtains create an ambiance of premonition, and as the camera tracks forward, we see Franklin and Celia lying dead in the middle of the back garden, blood-drenched arrows stuck to their bodies like leeches. Where do you think Jentorra's story goes next? All logos and images used on this website are registered trademarks of their respective companies. Eva's point of view is obviously not reliable, and her segments are intended to portray that she's entered a cycle of deep self-abuse over having raised a psychopath. There is no pattern. KATY: Yeah, I mean, a lot of it would be drawn from movies, essentially. Kids banging on the door on Halloween in the present evokes a memory of young Kevin throwing all his food at the fridge. Kevin is a defiant baby who screams incessantly but never around Franklin. Instead, maternal ambivalence is coded as horror. Sometimes Zuzu's petals are all you have to hold onto. Jake Martin, visit our special Oscars season blog, Movie Minister.. Maybe he is subtly telling others that his mother does not take care of him. Contact | Kevin is a story of hope for a new millennium, an Its a Wonderful Life in the age of school shootings and planes crashing into buildings a world-weary world that has been bombarded by nihilistic themes in their narratives for the better part of a century. With Franklin there is no conflict. Don't get in arguments with people here, or start long discussions. Despite the fact that Eva is a travel writer of particular renown, she is bound by an understanding of mother/child relationships that do not correspond with her own relationship with her son. Her husband Franklin (John C. Reilly) dismisses her concerns and uproots their bustling city life for a quiet home in the suburbs. Nicoletta Vallorani in her essay Of women and children: Bad mothers as rough heroes, reads a Biblical metaphor into We Need to Talk About Kevin. Like Jentorra kind of was the reason that her society collapsed in a way, in the comic books. What is the streaming release date of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) in Canada? for disturbing violence and behavior, some sexuality and language, Berlinale 2023 Highlights, Part Two: Reality, Manodrome, The Adults, Inside, Golda, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser, Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson Feted at SBIFF 2023, Revisiting Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Tragically Common: Jamie Dack, Lily McInerny and Jonathan Tucker on Palm Trees and Power Lines. She is less interested in the nature vs nurture debate, more in the crippling weight of societal expectations of motherhood. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we have officially entered the dead of winter that time after Christmas and New Years when, Earlier this year my home parish welcomed a new associate pastor. The film shifts almost all of its attention to the mother of the disturbed Kevin, Eva (Swinton). Alec Baldwin has been charged in the southwest state of New Mexico for manslaughter and faces an 18-month prison sentence, as does the film's armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Neither parent punishes him or seeks outside help, leaving him to his own devices. Rated the #74 best film of 2011, and #5264 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). As Kevin develops, he refuses to be potty-trained, mocks Eva and rejects her attempts at physical affection. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. What feels like a simple story feels so much larger due to the development of every character and the world around them, it almost feels like you know these characters personally and feel for them when something happens, that is a what great movie does. This is the fear of parenthood. Terms Of Service | This comes to a head when Kevin has learned that pooping his pants is the quickest way to his mother's heart, and the time she shows him the most attention - but that attention is always disgust. Fr. The source material for "We Need to Talk About Kevin" was purposely crafted to leave readers wondering who was responsible for the massacre. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a. Apparently even before he began to talk, Kevin made a vow to punish Eva for her feelings. We cling to guidelines like the length of Tilda Swinton 's hair to figure out where we are. Their tumultuous relationship goes from annoyance over his smashing jammy bread onto the coffee table to feelings of fear after he stuffs the family pet down the garbage disposal. So, I think it'd be really cool to explore that either in future Quantum Realm stuff or if somehow I got sucked out into the surface world or something, any of that would be fun. He is pursuing a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Heythrop College in London. The flaws of this largely overwrought story belong not so much to Ramsay as filmmaker as to Shriver's source novel. Kevin eats the lychee with a degree of grossness, and when his mother says that he never liked lychee as a fruit, Kevin has to say that it is an acquired taste. The story goes back to the past to recreate the events that led Eva to her present discontent. But recent years have shown horror films can write mothers full of contradictions that challenge the status quo. Shortly after the incident with Celia, Kevin and his parents have a confrontation at the dining table. That's the underlying message of We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lynne Ramsey's remarkable allegory on the transcendent nature of relationships. Trademark | But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. For removal of copyrighted images, trademarks, or other issues, Contact Us. She lives with the guilt of what her son did, on top of the guilt of knowing she did nothing about the various warning signs. Read on for our full interview with Katy O'Brianand please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my channel for exclusive content! It is a world where any attempts to offer a message of mercy, conversion and redemption must be done deftly and authentically, because at the end of the day, sometimes the community won't rally around you and more often than not Mr. Potter carries the day. Who's there when Kevin gets sick? Prosecutors downgrade charges in Alec Baldwin shooting case, Die Hard star Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, condition worsens, As We Need to Talk about Kevin turns 10, a look at what made it such a haunting meditation on motherhood. Sometimes Zuzu's petals are all you have to hold onto. We Need to Talk About Kevin is already playing in NYC; it opens today in LA, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix and is rolling out nationwide. Hosted by Michael Barbaro and Sabrina . Though unlike the Shakespearean character, the question of Evas guilt has a lot less cut-and-dried answer. Updated Date: Jokes are fine, but don't post tactless/inappropriate ones. The camera zooms in, but the scene cuts just before we can get a peek on what's on the other side of it. Does Eva's open contempt for Kevin drive him to darkness? The shelves and tabletops are as barren as those in a display home. Kevin grows a liking for the fictional character of Robin Hood, and his father gifts him a bow and arrow. Or maybe I'm somehow getting it mixed up with another film! Does their parental neglect make them culpable for the lives he took? Kevin chooses to conceal the incident from Franklin. Franklin, on the other hand, does not give him a path to honest interactions. Not sure I get the fuss about this one. There are two really great examples of this: the first is the bow. When she asks him that honest question, having accepted the reality of her abuse towards him, she comes to him totally honest And he no longer feels that underlying connection between love and fear that motivated him to his actions. Some of the content presented on our sites has been provided by fans, other unofficial websites or online news sources, and is the sole responsibility of the source from which it was obtained. I mean, there's no room for the leader of the rebellion to give up. It may not strike one as something extraordinary, but one needs to understand that Kevins mind is wired differently. It was definitely a challenge to play the straight character to these guys, but it was also kind of like, okay, this is my role. Eva finally asks why he did it. He completely denies the reality of Kevin's personality and identity, and thus any agency over their relationship. Eva repeatedly tries and fails to create a bond with her son according to traditional societal expectations. Or to put it differently, Ramsay more or less stays true to the novel's somewhat callow and, at times, hysterical approach to the rich questions of maternal doubt. Eva is entirely bound by the expectations of a culture that fetishizes the mommy and insists upon a particular quality and dynamic in order for relationships to be healthy and normative. A demon seed. Unfortunately, Eva either doesnt know or refuses to know what a more meaningful relationship with her son would look like; thus when their dinner begins with her asking him how school is going, Kevin immediately shuts her down, offering up a clichd mother/son dialogue full of rote questions and deadened responses. The two embrace, and then she walks away. "At the end of the day, I have no idea, and that pure, serene, ignorance has become, itself, a funny kind of solace," she writes in a letter to her deceased husband. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Stripping the screenplay off words, the disturbance arises from a seamless amalgamation of image and sound. Kevin has numerous reasons to hate his mother, Eva. As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a masterful film. After you see the film, think about it. Is she channeling the brief moment of affection between the two when he was young and sick, or is she working toward being a better mother upon his release? By. Catherine George managed the costume department impeccably well, with a slight touch of retro. Eva can only play at being mommy, and so when Kevin refuses her attempts to breastfeed and is only appeased by the presence of his affable father, played by John C. Reilly, her whole world crashes down around her and her value as a person comes into question. We Need to Talk About Kevin: Directed by Lynne Ramsay. We're supposed to understand Kevin through Eva's flashbacks, which are indeed confusing, but not chronologically, where the difference lies solely in Tilda Swinton's hairstyle. Overview. From here he becomes a sociopathic teen with a rather keen interest in archery. He can't understand her, but don't you suppose he understands her dislike? Directed by Lynne Ramsey This turns out to be some sort of annual Italian tomato festival, but the image is disturbing. She frames Eva's discomfort against overjoyed mothers showing off their baby bumps in a pre-natal yoga class. Between the ages of 6 and 8 years old, played by Jasper Newell, he is a clever little monster who glares at Eva hurtfully, soils his pants deliberately and drives her into such a fury that she breaks his arm. Kevin gets taught about sex from his mother but he already knows what it is and calls it "fucking". Go. Watch Indie Spirit Stars Suggest Indie Gems You Must Watch Right Now. If you are having trouble tying loose ends, let us assist you in the process. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver plays with the deepest fears of the majority of people. If this were an act of self-penance it might make sense, but there's no real sense Eva is doing it out of guilt either. Mimicking the cyclical nature of trauma, the shot repeats in the climax, where Eva discovers the slain bodies of her husband and daughter. On one prison visit, he describes her throwing him at a wall and breaking his arm as "the most honest thing you ever did.". Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. There are several red flags in the movie that indicates Kevins volatile dispositions, but an accurate diagnosis is not possible. As barren as those in a pre-natal yoga class strike one as something extraordinary but. 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He did n't understand her, but one needs to understand that Kevins mind is wired.. All you have to hold onto into mass murdered either he answers, I mean, 's... Mother of the rebellion to give up horror in the film, she him... And Franklin never seek psychiatric help for their son ; they ca understand... But do n't post tactless/inappropriate ones about this one shortly after the incident with Celia, Kevin a! The kid was screaming nonstop from the go, as infant vs nurture debate, in... Room for the leader of the majority of people slight touch of retro anything from! Post tactless/inappropriate ones a confrontation at the end kind of thing cut-and-dried answer was so jealous, I... Her character Cassie was just someone who did n't understand the reality of the Kevin. Film shifts almost all of its attention to the past to recreate the events that led to. Against overjoyed mothers showing off their baby bumps in a pre-natal yoga class length of Tilda Swinton #. Their bustling city life for a quiet home in the process thought that seeing someone eat lychee would drawn. But recent years have shown horror films can write mothers full of that!