But by the time he is a seven year-old, he starts to act in ways that seem in excess of whatever defects in mother love he may be getting. 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. But Eva is incapable of showing him the love that he deserves, even after trying her best. Franklin, on the other hand, does not give him a path to honest interactions. Who's there when Kevin gets sick? The victims of those who go out with a bang are miniscule in comparison to the number who go out (extinguish themselves) in solitude with nary a whimper. He's aware of her feelings toward him, and throughout the film, points them out. Putting herself through a painful process of introspection, she revisits moments from well before Kevin's birth to the eventual tragedy. Kevin, it seems, has a method to his madness. The mistake would be to take the film apart and try to reconnect the pieces in chronological order. You know, it's all fun and games until you really understand that every single decision that you make impacts everybody. This is the scene where the film begins and the ending comes full circle revisiting the moment of rupture in Evas life. The condition causes loss of the ability to understand or express speech. The real horror in We Need to Talk About Kevin is society's dogmatic conception of motherhood,and the pressure to live up to it. Kevin is a defiant baby who screams incessantly but never around Franklin. So, me, I'm surrounded by comedy, and I have to bring the reality of what's going on. What kind of a kitchen has empty counters? When Kevin paints Evas room with color splashes, Eva thinks that Kevin wanted to ruin the room, but maybe he really wanted to make it more special. In a fit of rage at Kevin's soiling his diapers (at 7), Eva throws him down and breaks his arm. As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a masterful film. It's why vandals paint Evas house in red, and neighbours take out their anger on her. This in turn completely undermines the husband/wife dynamic. After you see the film, think about it. The real monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love. So, I'm personally glad that they distanced that part of the thing from this character, but there was so little overlap that - There's only seven comic books, I think, that have Jentorra in them - that we really did seem to have a lot more freedom to kind of create a fully new character for this. But he hates her the most due to her pretense and dishonesty, it seems. Art and Divine Beauty: An Antidote to the Winter Blues, The Prodigal Son: How to Overcome the 3 Lies We Tell Ourselves. But we can safely assume that Kevin did not literally eat the eyeball. Kevin gets taught about sex from his mother but he already knows what it is and calls it "fucking". But the two most significant and poignant moments are found at the end of the film, when the 18-year-old Kevin, two years into a prison sentence for a heinous incident at his high school (yes, its as bad as you think), responds to his mothers query as to why he did what he did. For more information, please see our 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. They never talk about Kevin. What if she knew while being pregnant that she is about to give birth to a monster? You've got Braveheart, which it kind of has a similar feeling to. There is some resentment over Kevin's arrival deterring her professional ambitions. Although the act is enhanced through visual obscurity and concealment, we get the idea that Kevin kills a few of his classmates in the locked auditorium. Catherine George managed the costume department impeccably well, with a slight touch of retro. 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. Use the boards for extended discussion. KATY: I kind of saw Jentorra as someone who was already part of a warrior society, so maybe she was used to fighting already, but in kind of a way different level. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Going on, she again asks the question of responsibility and says, "I don't know. He is loving and affectionate with his father, Franklin (John C. Reilly), and has a way of making it clear that it's a deliberate charade designed only to hurt Eva. Kevins clothes are also an avenue to memories for Eva, and in the end, Eva irons and stacks up Kevins clothes in a drawer in the hope that her son will return from prison. In a sonic sleight-of-hand, the joyful cheers alchemise into the sorrowful cries of the families and friends of Kevin's victims. We learn that Kevin was a difficult, colicky baby, who grew up to be a difficult, problematic child who seemingly refuses to toilet train, despite a rather surprising vocabulary. The murder spree began with his father and sister suffering the same fate earlier that day. The film follows the relationship between a mother and son, Eva (Tilda Swinton) and Kevin (played as a teenager by Ezra Miller and as a child by Jasper Newell) through a pastiche of sequences spanning the course of Kevins first eighteen years. Haunted by the past, Eva's memories are triggered by sounds, objects and everyday minutiae. The second is Kevin's bedroom. 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. The camera zooms in, but the scene cuts just before we can get a peek on what's on the other side of it. While Eva is growing increasingly distrustful of Kevin, Franklin sides with his son and their marriage takes a hit. Rather, Ramsay's film is an extended treatment of the optics of grief and guilt. Ambivalent toward motherhood, Eva struggles to care about her increasingly cruel son, Kevin (Ezra Miller). ROHAN: Considering that you had done Black Lightningand Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,and already gotten a small taste of superhero projects before stepping into this massive MCU project. Like Jentorra kind of was the reason that her society collapsed in a way, in the comic books. Would any interference have prevented him from becoming a killer? Index | As she leaves, a troupe of tiny ballerinas in tutus run past her. ROHAN: You have a few scenes with Kathryn Newton, who is playing Cassie, in the film. Swinton told me of a line in the script that wasn't used, wisely, I believe. ROHAN: Since Jentorra is the leader of the rebellion, was there anything specificyou tried to channel or watch to get into her headspace? Most of the film in present time shows the ritual abuse and humiliation the bereft Eva suffers from the community that she continues to live in after Kevin's deeds. 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. Likewise, don't respond to trollish comments; just report them and ignore them. He hates Eva for a plethora of reasons her neglect, her coldness towards Kevin, and Franklins misguided overcompensation for the lack of Evas love. The real horror in the movie is society's dogmatic conception of motherhood, and the pressure to live up to it. Home | He grows into a spiteful toddler, refusing to say "mommy" and egging on her frustrations. Don't post randomness/off-topic comments. The most plausible answer is that Kevin killed the family to hurt his mother. As a teenager, Kevin (now played by Ezra Miller) has started to cruelly resemble his mother in profile and hairstyle. edition that "We Need to Talk About Kevin" asks an explicit question, "Yet I hope that this question is no more resolved in the book than crude oppositions like 'nature vs. nurture' are ever reconciled in real life.". Annie Graham in Hereditary is conflicted by feelings of love and hate, resentment and remorse, towards her son. For example, sociopaths are more erratic, and they dont make drastic decisions such as Kevins. We Need to Talk About Kevin : r/books. In We Need to Talk about Kevin, Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence. In a film otherwise devoid of hope, these subtle suggestions give the audience a sense of comfort. 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? 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. Ramsay builds on Shriver's idea of internalised blame with how Eva sees herself following the tragedy. KATY: Yeah, I mean, this obviously had the difference between TV and movie. Kids banging on the door on Halloween in the present evokes a memory of young Kevin throwing all his food at the fridge. Something just happened. When Eva gets pregnant for the second time, Kevin feels that he has become estranged from the family and grows jealous. When he is interviewed on TV, a reflection of Eva's face on the screen is overlaid on his. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a. The real monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love. Of course, that mental illness is presumed by viewers. Is Kevin a sociopath or a psychopath, then? Sometimes Zuzu's petals are all you have to hold onto. It doesn't gel with what has come before, where Eva seems to accept her son's innate cruelty, and is looking for a way to escape. It's very hard for me to take things seriously, I love to crack jokes and everything, and, I mean, they're so funny off-set, even the guy that played Xolum, James Cutler, he's so funny, and he's just screaming random stuff, when you're trying to be serious, and just all of a sudden, this yell comes out of nowhere, and you're trying to just keep a straight face. 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. To express concern over a child's habitual malice is coded as monstrous. Still, the film should not be overshadowed by its leads performance, as is often the case with female Oscar nominees. Some animals sometimes know that something is not right with fetus and can even abort it voluntary or when it is born, they abandon it. Growing up with a cold mother does not turn one into mass murdered either. Is her husband as zoned out as he seems or is that only her perception? A flashback, from long before Kevin was born, shows Eva at La Tomatina, celebrating with the crowd. Author Lionel Shriver on her early writing, politics, essential reading list and persevering out of 'sheer spite'. Indeed, Kevin is a relentless film that gives its audience few opportunities to come up for air from the depths of anguish to which it plummets. ROHAN: Was there anything major cut that you remember shooting? Or did Kevin turned this way because she messed him up from the very birth. It is so ingrained in our culture even a fellow grieving mother slaps her in the parking lot. Kevin chooses to conceal the incident from Franklin. Eva takes incessant trips down memory lane to cope with her past loss. All logos and images used on this website are registered trademarks of their respective companies. Nature refers to how they were born, while nurture refers to how they were raised. His attitude towards his son is warmer, but underneath there's no more depth than there is with Eva. We see it perfectly after he blinds Celia - Eva attempts to confront him about what he's done, and he sits chewing a water chestnut to impress the image of plucking out an eye on Eva, just to watch the horror on her face. This turns out to be some sort of annual Italian tomato festival, but the image is disturbing. Any spoilers should be placed in spoiler tags as such. In front of his mother, Kevin is often a difficult, menacing and unresponsive boy. Stripping the screenplay off words, the disturbance arises from a seamless amalgamation of image and sound. Maybe everything else is intended to be a flashback, and the timeline begins when she finds out what Kevin did at his high school. The flaws of this largely overwrought story belong not so much to Ramsay as filmmaker as to Shriver's source novel. Cookie Notice Fun Fact: Ezra Miller is not a great person, Did not expect Steve Brule to be Kevin's father, can't help thinking how twisted but how well so much of this film would work with a laugh track [2]. and our February 24, 2023 at 12:05 PM ET. 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. His eyes dont give away any sense of remorse or guilt. Kevin appears in a short sleeve red shirt as a toddler. He can't understand her, but don't you suppose he understands her dislike? Crypto He completely denies the reality of Kevin's personality and identity, and thus any agency over their relationship. His willful misbehaviors continue as his mother becomes more estranged from him. BBC Films Kevin overhears his parents talking about a divorce, which adds to his anger towards the world. When Eva dips her whole face in a basin of water, her face turns into Kevin's. Kevin, it seems, is a volatile Holden Caulfield for the generation. For removal of copyrighted images, trademarks, or other issues, Contact Us. We Need to Talk About Kevin. Mimicking the cyclical nature of trauma, the shot repeats in the climax, where Eva discovers the slain bodies of her husband and daughter. All Rights Reserved. But when he just sits there frowning, she expresses real disgust towards him. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be be Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. How would I behave if basically the weight of a literal realm was on my shoulders? KATY: Yeah, I was so jealous, because I really loved it. 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. She obviously feels complicit and takes on the role of communal scapegoat as a way to expiate her own guilt as well as to grieve the loss of her family. He completely denies the reality of Kevin's personality and identity, and thus any agency over their relationship. An early scene shows Eva apparently participating in an orgy in a lake of blood. The woman sits up in alarm and shakes the MAN. The film opens to the sounds of sprinklers tch-tch-ing, before the first shot reveals a half-open patio door whose curtains are wafting with the wind. And it works - Eva's confrontation was brutally dishonest, but after his reaction she's barely containing her seething rage and the truth of it is all over her face. Like a fluke, nothing to do with her personality or her hubby's personality? Evas struggle to connect with Kevin only deepens with age. None of that takes anything away from yet another deeply felt performance by the always-interesting Swinton. Because children are normally associated with innocence, creepy children are a tried concept in horror films. The desolate inner worlds of Ramsay's protagonists come alive through a sensory perspective. Based on Lionel Shriver's 2003 bestseller of the same name, Lynne Ramsay's 2011 film explores a broken family, mental illness, and the aftermath of a tragedy. Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), a former travel writer, gives up her life of adventure when she becomes pregnant. KATY: It was really different, obviously, than the comic book version. Be respectful! We find ourselves inside the mind of a woman whose psychopathic son has driven her over the edge. She sits in a blank daze in the hospital room. These people live there, but they've never moved in. This is not entirely his fault. Theres a possibility that maybe before all this happened that there was that naivete to Jentorra, but yeah, I don't know that she was re-inspired by Cassies energy, I guess, as much as like, Hey, this is the real world and you need to kind of catch up to where we are.. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. Directed by Lynne Ramsey Directed by Lynne Ramsay, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is fragments of time, jagged and confusing, lurching around inside her mind. We also did a lot of blue screen work before, which really helps with the imagination. Contact | How difficult was it to play the straight woman when everyone around you gets to be fairly silly in the early scenes? Indeed, one of. At one point, she mockingly coos at him, "Mommy was happy before little Kevin came along. "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. Instead, maternal ambivalence is coded as horror. Kevin grows up, and the family moves to an affluent neighborhood in their very own castle. We see it in her bond with the more amiable Celia. When the teenage Kevin surprisingly assents to a mother/son date, Eva is hopeful for the opportunity to cultivate a deeper relationship. 15.7M subscribers We Need To Talk About Kevin #1 Clip - Tilda Swinton Movie (2011) HD Subscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6h The mother of a teenage boy who went on a high-school killing. March 1, 2023, 6:00 a.m. She finally gets her excuse to abandon Kevin but doesn't act on it. Following the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we caught up with actress Katy O'Brian to talk about her MCU debut as Jentorra, deleted scenes with Bill Murray, and a whole lot more! Nothing makes sense. Rated the #74 best film of 2011, and #5264 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). For the first portion of the film, the leaps back and forth in time caused needless confusion. When asked about the film adaptation in an interview with The Guardian, Shriver said her biggest concern was if they'd be able to "capture the quality of the slightly unreliable narrator and the ambiguity over who is to blame. Was he acting out to punish Eva? See movies like "The innocents" (1961, Jack Clayton) (pay attention to the title) and "The omen" (1976, Richard Donner). While we are not sure whether Kevin consumed the eye itself, we know from the book that Kevin keeps Celias glass eye as a souvenir after assailing her. There seems to be almost no form of abuse she is not willing to take as belonging to her for what has happened. While she's on the run when we meet her, it's the arrival of Scott (Paul Rudd) and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) that brings her right back into the thick of the action. From the beginning, Eva is detached from motherhood. This is also true of Eva, but we see the conflict in her about her son's mental state. His reply: "You don't want to kill your audience.". Plus, she also touches on a potentially big deleted scene that would've seen her cross paths with Krylar (Bill Murray) and teases possible beef with Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). Alienated from friends and community, all she has left is her son. And so is Eva. 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. 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