Film review: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Published on Thursday 12 May 2011 23:11

We Need to Talk About Kevin ***** Directed by Lynne Ramsay Starring: John C Reilly, Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller

LYNNE Ramsay made a triumphant return to Cannes yesterday with We Need To Talk About Kevin, the first genuine buzz film of this year's Cannes Film Festival and an early favourite for the Palme d'Or.

The Glasgow filmmaker was last here nine years ago with Morvern Callar, and then seemed to disappear. In the meantime she spent five years on The Lovely Bones before parting with the project, according to one Hollywood report, "amid rancour between various backers". It then took four more years to get We Need To Talk About Kevin made.

The film is the comeback fans of Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar will have been hoping for, and offers more proof that Ramsay is one of the most exciting and daring young directors around.

Inspired by Lionel Shriver's bestselling novel, the new work is a dark and visually arresting psychological horror movie, with an emotionally gruelling central performance by Tilda Swinton – who appears in almost every scene – as a mother trying to rebuild her life after her son, Kevin (Ezra Miller), goes on a school killing spree.

We see her life as a series of memories and witness Kevin's development from a cluster of cells to a screaming baby, to a wilful toddler and then to an intense, dark-eyed, manipulative teenager at war with his mother and seemingly in love with his father. The question of whether Kevin is a product of nature or nurture hangs unanswered. The film's exploration of the taboo subject of maternal ambivalence and the conflicting feelings a parent can have for a child is frightening and frighteningly accurate. Swinton's ability to takes us inside a character's head without saying a word is powerfully utilised by Ramsay, while the equally striking-looking Miller is chilling as the older Kevin.

Rather than seeming at odds with its dark subject matter, the film's visual beauty intensifies the horror, as does Ramsay's decision not to show the carnage wrought by Kevin. What we don't see is always worse than what we do see, and Ramsay's restraint pays dividends.

A masterly piece of filmmaking, We Need to Talk About Kevin will be too dark and disturbing for some tastes, and anyone contemplating having children might want to think twice before seeing it.

If you're attracted by challenging, grown-up, well-crafted cinema, however, this is a must-see.