Review of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) by Mark J — 10 Mar 2018

Really hated this film. Which squanders the key opportunity to provide a compelling film, with psychological questions. They'd restructured the narrative of the book, in a crude and cynical way, leaving what boils down to a dull suspense drama. So all that you're left with within the films overlong running time is "so what did Kevin end up doing?". The tragedy of this film is the cold lack of responsibility for asking the most basic psychological questions.

Any success and watchability that the movie has, rests wholly upon Swintons fine performance. Ridiculously, Ramsey seems to be solely interested in the nature of the Eva's (the mothers) thoughts. Meaningless shots of her scraping paint off the walls of her house, and walking down corridors, which the filmmaker imagines have some meaning for the audience, just leave it cold. As a result, the film leaves you feeling depressed. But not depressed about Kevin.