We Need to Talk About Kevin

Writer-director Lynne Ramsay crafts a harrowing portrait of parental guilt in the profoundly disturbing psychological thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Eva (Tilda Swinton in a tour de force performance) was once a spirited world traveler alongside her photographer husband (a woefully miscast John C. Reilly). But now, in the aftermath of the heinous school massacre committed by their teenage son, Kevin (a menacing Ezra Miller), she's a lonely, mousy shell of her former self, willfully remaining in the town her son marred, accepting her neighbors' violence and hatred as a self-imposed penance. Through Eva's guilt-ridden memories an unsettling story emerges of a mother and child with no love between them. Telling art design paints Eva and Kevin as foils engaged in an unrelenting battle of wills, ultimately leading to a gruesome climax. The premise is made even more unsettling with a harsh, grating soundscape full of scratching, scraping, and tearing. Like Eva, who is repeatedly confronted with stand-ins for the gore wrought by Kevin in the form of oozing jam, red paint, and smashed tomatoes, we're made to experience every moment on edge. Ramsay's masterful filmmaking makes We Need to Talk About Kevin unforgettable, and the most chilling film of the year.