The ending of the film leaves Eva's fate up in the air. So, his dressing sense is perhaps not an indictment of his bitterness. Kevin was not necessarily abused or tortured as a child, many kids endure much worse and did not end up as mass killers. 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. That's a deeply human tale, and it calls to us, and I think that's why I see takes on the movie saying that it even encourages the viewer to think evil is in our nature and is immutable. But when he just sits there frowning, she expresses real disgust towards him. Directed by Lynne Ramsay, "We Need to Talk About Kevin" is fragments of time, jagged and confusing, lurching around inside her mind. Speaking with O'Brian following the film's release, she shared her experience on working on the biggest project of her career and how she and director Peyton Reed crafted an elaborate backstory for the leader of the rebellion. 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. While Eva is shown throughout the film to be indifferent toward her son, Kevin's actions are fueled by his desire to spite her. 112 minutes By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. Eva believes that some defect of maternal affection had something to do with Kevin's development. There have been a lot of discussions nature vs. nurture, but I've been thinking she was not ok during pregnancy, usually postpartum depression starts after birth. Rather, Ramsay's film is an extended treatment of the optics of grief and guilt. What is the streaming release date of We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) in Canada? If you look one level deeper it's clear that Kevin was deeply and horribly emotionally abused by both of his parents, and in a genuinely loving family he would not have turned out the way he did. Kevin, it seems, is a volatile Holden Caulfield for the generation. As he grows up, we see him in a blue t-shirt, and consecutively, in a bland white one. She finally gets her excuse to abandon Kevin but doesn't act on it. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver plays with the deepest fears of the majority of people. and our The film primarily shows you the pathos of evil by painting a portrait of a deeply and violently disturbed young man from his mother's point of view, and you watch how this relationship built and how that pathos developed. In the next sequence, he appears in a loose white shirt. Although these two terms are often used interchangeably in colloquial use, there are some mild differences between these two categories of personality disorders. Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), a former travel writer, gives up her life of adventure when she becomes pregnant. How difficult was it to play the straight woman when everyone around you gets to be fairly silly in the early scenes? In We Need to Talk about Kevin, Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence. ROHAN: You have a few scenes with Kathryn Newton, who is playing Cassie, in the film. Motherhood was therefore intended as a punishment.. Kevin grows up to be ever more distant. Kevin grows up, and the family moves to an affluent neighborhood in their very own castle. Read on for our full interview with Katy O'Brianand please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my channel for exclusive content! Only with her because his father was at work whole day and saw his son for like an hour a day. American release: January 27, 2012. Like Jentorra kind of was the reason that her society collapsed in a way, in the comic books. The brooding tone of the narrative prepares the audience for a devastating ending, but in hindsight, some of you may have seen it coming. By. To express concern over a child's habitual malice is coded as monstrous. Kevin relentlessly cries in the custody of Eva, but Franklin seems to know how to stop him. While Eva and Franklin argue over the accident, Kevin taunts his mother by peeling a litchi, with a smug look on his face. It is true that there is nothing unusual about giving birth to children in order . Shortly after, Eva goes back to the house. The movie we see is her collecting every horrible interaction she ever had with her son and putting it under the umbrella of "things I did," because the only way she can cope with the insanity of what her son did is by fitting it to a narrative where she's responsible. KATY: Yeah, I mean, a lot of it would be drawn from movies, essentially. Annie Graham in Hereditary is conflicted by feelings of love and hate, resentment and remorse, towards her son. Home | So, what did that exchange mean for the Khatchadourians? Helmed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay based on the Orange Prize-winning eponymous 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a jarring, erratic, and sometimes profoundly disturbing 2011 psychological thriller that creates an uncanny place in the viewers mind. She could move away for a fresh start, but she's shown setting up a room for him, complete with his navy blue bedding and Robin Hood book. You know, it's all fun and games until you really understand that every single decision that you make impacts everybody. Sign up for weekly updates from Busted Halo! Franklin does not and cannot understand Kevin, and completely resists any opportunity to do so. She created a relationship which encouraged him to act out as horribly as possible to get the most honest reactions from her, because she only ever showed him her real emotions when she was disgusted. Swinton said as much in an interview, Its about her fears and the horror of what she knows about herselfusing him as a kind of projection of her own self-loathing. The novel explores themes of nihilism, motherhood, the relationship between violence and depravity, and much more. Three days before turning 16, Kevin unleashes chaos in his school. Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. His reply: "You don't want to kill your audience.". The second is Kevin's bedroom. The wife and mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton), has been so overwhelmed by despair that her life exists in her mind all at the same time. Or to put it differently, Ramsay more or less stays true to the novel's somewhat callow and, at times, hysterical approach to the rich questions of maternal doubt. Nicoletta Vallorani in her essay Of women and children: Bad mothers as rough heroes, reads a Biblical metaphor into We Need to Talk About Kevin. Kevin grows a liking for the fictional character of Robin Hood, and his father gifts him a bow and arrow. Now, mommy wakes up every morning and wishes she was in France! Prefer Ramsay's earlier pictures to this flawed but interesting piece. It's a cyclical pattern, making it impossible to hold just one person accountable for everything. The non-linear approach makes the somewhat inevitable events more powerful and though Miller is effective as Kevin, younger actor Newell actually impressed me even more. Her only crime was perhaps hurrying into the role before she was ready. The point here is not to understand Kevin at all. This is not entirely his fault. He's positive, cheerful, disconnected; he always behaves as nicely as he can, and in doing so, suggests his profound cluelessness. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Thats the underlying message of We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lynne Ramseys remarkable allegory on the transcendent nature of relationships. Neither parent punishes him or seeks outside help, leaving him to his own devices. The two embrace, and then she walks away. Is her husband as zoned out as he seems or is that only her perception? Did they create a monster, or was he born that way? 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. This review of the film was originally published on December 22, 2011. We Need to Talk About Kevin Jump to Edit Summaries Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. Will, get up. However, we dont really know why Kevin kills his family. Best Little Sites is not liable for inaccuracies, errors, or omissions found herein. Therefore, when Kevin shows Eva the scar from the childhood accident, he tells her that it is the most honest thing that Eva ever did to him. In this one, it is Kevin's triumph. Ramsay regularly cuts to a scene where Eva is driving her car past flashing police lights toward the scene of some tragedy. Kevin replies that he thought he knew why but now hes not sure anymore. 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. We see her birthing of him as rather fraught and his incessant crying drives her nearly mad. Did your prior experience help prepare you for some of what to expect on Quantumania? March 1, 2023, 6:00 a.m. Yet it is in those infrequent instances of relief, conversion and mercy that the film finds its identity and direction. 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. February 24, 2023 at 12:05 PM ET. Besides their physical likeness, Eva and Kevin also share a certain coldness, which plays into Eva's self-hatred. For the first portion of the film, the leaps back and forth in time caused needless confusion. He buys a few locks before the school sabotage and has a decisive plan regarding how to go about it. We're supposed to understand Kevin through Eva's flashbacks, which are indeed confusing, but not chronologically, where the difference lies solely in Tilda Swinton's hairstyle. Kevin is a defiant baby who screams incessantly but never around Franklin. The kid was screaming nonstop from the go, as infant. He's aware of her feelings toward him, and throughout the film, points them out. 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. Ambivalent toward motherhood, Eva struggles to care about her increasingly cruel son, Kevin (Ezra Miller). See movies like "The innocents" (1961, Jack Clayton) (pay attention to the title) and "The omen" (1976, Richard Donner). Only the daughter, Celia (Ashley Gerasimovich), seems halfway normal. But her expression is one of strained indifference. The comedy had to come elsewhere there. He seems to recognize that he has some advantage over her. Therefore, the sense of clothing provides a link between the otherwise antagonistic mother and son. A bright light appears outside. The name itself Eva is not chosen by chance, echoing the fatally disobedient woman of the Bible, whose act determined the loss of the Garden of Eden. Rated R After you see the film, think about it. Rated the #74 best film of 2011, and #5264 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). Kevin is a story of hope for a new millennium, an Its a Wonderful Life in the age of school shootings and planes crashing into buildings a world-weary world that has been bombarded by nihilistic themes in their narratives for the better part of a century. 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. Site Map | Anyways I haven't read the book but I guess I probably should lol, Scan this QR code to download the app now. At one point, she mockingly. Ultimately what it winds up giving us is perhaps the most important truth of Christianity, namely that God is the hope to be found in the midst of the smoke and ashes. This is why, in the final scene, he no longer knows why he performed the massacre. A lawsuit could force the F.D.A. 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. In a fit of rage at Kevin's soiling his diapers (at 7), Eva throws him down and breaks his arm. As she leaves, a troupe of tiny ballerinas in tutus run past her. Did you work with her individually on creating some of that dynamic since Jentorra is someone that's been in this fight a long time versus Cassie who is just beginning her fight against Kang? The sci-fi adventure opens in theaters on Feb. 17, 2023. We Need To Talk About Kevin - Behind the Scenes - Tilda Swinton Movie (2011) HD - YouTube 0:00 / 2:18 We Need To Talk About Kevin - Behind the Scenes - Tilda Swinton Movie. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) photos, including production stills, premiere photos and other event photos, publicity photos, behind-the-scenes, and more. None of this is done in a straightforward fashion. Directed by Lynne Ramsey But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Ramsay simulates these associative memories, jumping back and forth between the past and the present. The bed, the gown, and the walls bleed into each other in their cold whiteness, externalising her inner state of mind. He doesn't have the emotional capacity to have a disturbed son, and so has decided that he doesn't and that's the end of it. Eva Khatchadourian, a former travelogue writer, lives in a rundown shack in an American suburb and goes to meet her son. ( Ezra Miller ) colloquial use, there are some mild differences between these two categories of disorders., the relationship between violence and depravity, and # 5264 in the of. 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