1 and a half out of 4 stars *1/2
Director Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin is a grim and ugly piece of work. It’s a film with a botched understanding of the human psyche. It is so one sided and relentless in its depiction of a troubled child (i.e. sociopath), that it leaves the audience feeling exhausted and nauseous. It uses blatantly obvious visual metaphors to get its points across and has no room for nuance or subtlety. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a sensationalistic and exploitive picture with no soul. It is one of the most disappointing films of the year.
Tilda Swinton stars as Eva Khatchadourian, the mother of a trouble child, named Kevin, who will grow up to do unspeakable things. Much of the picture involves her interactions with her disturbed son and her growing paranoia that he may be evil. If this sounds like the plot of a satanic horror film to you than you’re not far off. We Need to Talk about Kevin has more in common with The Omen than it does with a domestic drama. Swinton does give a fully realized performance as Eva, and her work should be commended as she gives depth to a character who isn’t much more likeable than her devilish son. She has moments of despair that are palpable. The problem is that everyone around her thinks that she is crazy for thinking that there is something wrong with her darling boy. But, from the first glance at this kid anyone can see that he has gone off the deep end. And that is the major problem of the film – Ramsay doesn’t see any need to explore Kevin’s psyche or show any side to him other than that he is disturbed. It’s too easy to show Kevin as a monster. What would have been far more compelling would have been to see the different shades of Kevin. Even monsters have feelings and moments of clarity. But Ramsay doesn’t have time for that sort of nonsense. She wants us to know just how horrible Kevin is right from the start.
The visual metaphors start right at the beginning and are bashed over our head again and again right to the very end. Eva’s house is damaged by someone throwing a large bucket of red paint on it. She spends much of the film trying to clean it up while having flashbacks. We see shots over and over again of the red paint on her hands obviously symbolizing her washing away the blood of the victims of her son. There is also a ham-fisted sequence in which Eva drives home on Halloween and sees children dressed as monster parading throughout the streets. This, of course, torments her because her son is the real monster! The obvious symbolism is tedious and childish. Ramsay doesn’t have the ability to trust her subject matter or her actors to convey the proper emotions.
It should be mentioned that John C. Reilly has a supporting role as Eva’s husband who is completely clueless about his son. He spends much of the picture trying to convince Eva that she is crazy. There is no love between them and as such there relationship is null and void. It’s a waste of screen time. Ezra Miller does the best he can with the adult Kevin, but his constant sneering grows tiresome within the first few minutes. There is a coda at the end meant to bring us some kind of closure with the violent events that have unfolded, but it comes off as cold and hallow. We Need to Talk about Kevin exhausted me with it banality and trivial treatment of a serious issue. A huge disappointment.
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Release Date: December 9, 2011
Runtime: 112 Mins
No comments:
Post a Comment