Culture

Do you hate your mother for bringing you into this sinister world? Do thoughts about your high school days invoke shivers of disgust throughout you? Have you ever considered putting your baby hamster into the waste disposal? Is your name Kevin Khatchadourian? If yes – we need to talk about you.

We Need to Talk About Kevin follows the story of a mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton), who finds herself in a state of shock after a terrifying incident shatters her world into tiny, sharp-edged pieces. Consuming extensive quantities of medication and alcohol, Eva searches through her memories of her son, Kevin (Ezra Miller), to work out what went so horribly wrong.

Like many thrillers, the shattered pieces are only placed together, with bloodstained fingers, towards the very end. The film features outstanding performances, an eclectic-but-brilliant soundtrack (on the level of Tarantino) and a creativity that takes constant risks, as the theme of nature versus nurture is taken to a vertigo-inducing height.

While the filmmakers’ artistry is of a high level, those who have not read Lionel Shriver’s novel (which the film is based on) may find the plot ambiguous as the narration attempts to translate the novel’s epistolary format into film language through constant and unexpected flashbacks. The use of symbolism, especially through the use of the colour red to saturate the film, from raspberry sandwiches to rows of red soup, to red paint splatterings, is everywhere. Ultimately, whether or not you love We Need To Talk About Kevin will depend on where you place ambiguity, artistry, horror and Tilda Swinton’s striking cheekbones on your scale of film viewability.

– Loulou Callister-Baker