I never reread my posts and they are therefore riddled with grammar and spelling errors. Enjoy!

Tuesday 20 November 2012

We Need To Talk About Kevin


We Need To Talk About Kevin is drama/thriller adaptation of the novel by Lionel Shriver of the same name. I'd been meaning to see the film for some time and I remember being intensely interested after watching the trailer before it came out. I even bought my mother the book, knowing the subject matter would appeal to her (her job involves working closely with children with learning difficulties and metal health problems. She even raised one *waves*). It's not generally my area of interest, but the storyline caught me immediately. 

I forgot about the film some time after, and so when it was released, I didn't remember to watch it, until my friend Lorna mentioned that she'd seen it. It gave me the nudge I needed to watch it, and so here's my review. 

Spoilers from hereon in


The story revolves around a mother, Eva, dealing with the guilt and social death that follows a massacre that her son commits at his high school. The film jumps back and forth between the past and the present, showing life before Kevin was born, during his youth and through adolescence and puberty, then the present and after the massacre took place.

The film documents Eva's failed attempts at bonding with her son her over the entire span of his childhood to adult life. The child is shown to be manipulative and spiteful, lacking remorse and emotion, even during the earliest years of his life, pitting his family against each other and worse. 

Tilda Swindon is absolutely glorious as Eva. She won and was nominated for several awards in the role, including a Golden Globe and rightly so. I have studied drama myself for years, and I can't even fathom where she pulled her performance from. It's so strong and convincing. at times I forgot it was even acting. Her facial expressions could tell the story alone, and hold more emotion that I am even capable of expressing in real life. 

Ezra Miller as Kevin is passable but a little wooden in places and a little hammy in others. I wasn't as convinced by his performance as I was by the other actors, which is disappointing being that he is the title role. I don't feel afraid of him and I don't feel any genuine malice when he speaks. He would be better suited as one of the women's horrible teenage son on Desperate Housewives. So that was a let down. He looks the part though. The younger versions of Kevin were played very well, and really do look like younger versions of the lead actor, so that was pretty good. The supporting cast aren't bad, they do a good job of glueing the rest of the film together, but they're nothing outstanding. 

The use of colour in the film is very good, most prominently the use of the colour red, continually using red foods, clothing and paint. An obvious but effective symbol, alluding what's to come later in the film. There are some lovely scenes that only have symbolic relevance, such as the baby screaming in the middle of the street during the drilling. You can almost imagine Eva feels like the that drilling is there 24/7. The flashbacks are very out of order and if I knew how mishmashed the narrative was, I'd expect to be confused, but it was surprisingly easy to follow. 

The use of music in this film was just brilliant. Some people might disagree with me on this one, I feel like people are going to be both ends of the spectrum, but I feel that it has some of the finest uses of juxtaposition I've ever seen in a film. There is one scene where Eva is driving down the road on Halloween, and without giving too much away, she's finding life a little hard to deal with. With this scene, they play Buddy Holly's 'Everyday' and it works splendidly. 

I have a few complaints, though. I don't know if the book is written this way, but it seems to me that the story is attempting to make us sympathise with Eva and hate Kevin, and although it's never mentioned, it's often implied that he's a sociopath, etc, and it's his fault that his mother could never bond with him, not hers, as he pushes away her attempts. But I feel like before he was born, the distance between her and her unborn child is already apparent. 

When she's attending her prenatal classes, it shows all the other mothers with their stomachs out, parading their bumps proudly, whilst showing Eva, very obviously uncomfortable, hides her bump as best she can. And there are more than one scenes like this. To me, it almost plays out like she didn't want Kevin, and that's what put the distance between them, and that contradicts any of the later reasons to me. I feel like for that reason, I can't entirely hate Kevin, and I really feel like I should. 

The massacre scene also poses a problem for me in that you never see it. You see Kevin firing into the school hall, but you never see the massacre. Now I feel like this would have been effective if shot differently, but the way they filmed it honestly did just look like he was stood in an empty hall, firing into nowhere. There was so much more they could have done with that scene, and it could have been shot so much more effectively, and powerfully. 

My final complaint. Kevin locks the school so no one can escape with bike locks, and the fire brigade have to cut through the locks on the outside to get in. I can't understand how he got the locks on the outside of the doors if he was on the inside. That's just sloppy direction. 

Overall, I actually really enjoyed the film, there were some great scenes, some scenes I feel that could have worked better. I think the cinematography was great and the use of music was wonderful. Some of the acting was solid, and in other places, I feel the casting could have been improved, but I do recommend the film. I think the rewatch value is very high and it's very entertaining, and shocking at times, there's plenty that I haven't given away. Trust me.



Script: 7/10 
Cinematography: 9.5/10
Acting: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Direction: 9/10

Overall: 8/10

Trailer below. Happy watching!




No comments:

Post a Comment