We Need to Talk About Kevin

4.5 stars... Chilling and devastating
Going into "We Need to Talk About Kevin" (110 min.), I knew very generally what the theme of the movie was (Kevin is a troubled kid and he is going to do something horrible) but purposefully I did not know any of the plot details as I wanted to movie to surprise me. Boy, did the movie surprise me!

The first 20-25 min. of the movie are absolutely transfixing, as there is hardly any conversation, and there are miltiple story lines going on at the same time. The picture that eventually emerges is one where Eva (Kevin's mom) is dealing with the traumas of whatever Kevin has done (we don't know until much later in the movie what that is), and also, in flashbacks, reflecting on how Kevin grew up (and why he turned out the way he did, and of course where there was anything she could've done better or differently). The acting in the movie is mostly outstanding, with Tilda Swinton as Eva, but the 3 actors who portray Kevin are equally effective, none more so in my opition than...

'Wherein does evil lie?'
In an interview with Lionel Shriver' about her highly successful 2005 novel she commented on the difficulty of the project: `It was admittedly draining. And throughout, I was anxious that because I had never had a child myself, I didn't know what I was talking about and readers who were parents would catch me out.' As adapted for the screen by director Lynne Ramsay and Rory Kinnear this story becomes a terrifyingly realistic exploration of the subject of inherent evil and the manner in which we deal with it. The film is particularly timely as we read almost daily of youngsters killing classmates in schools across the country. But first the story:

Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton) is trying to piece together her life following the "incident". Once a successful travel writer, she is forced to take whatever job comes her way, which of late is as a clerk in a travel agency. She lives a solitary life as people who know about her situation openly shun her, even to the point of...

See it for Tilda Swinton's haunting performance
What is it that we always hear? Not just from friends, but especially in movies and TV shows about parenting. It's that there's "no guidebook" to being a parent. You just have to do your best and learn as you go. That assumes a level of parental instinct exists on even the most basic level, but what if there isn't? What if you hate your child? What if your child hates you and everything else just as much?

In We Need to Talk About Kevin, that emotional deficit leads to nightmarish consequences, the kind that would leave any rational parent breaking out in a drenching cold sweat. When we first meet Eva(Tilda Swinton), she seems adrift in this world. For unknown reasons she's hated and ridiculed by the people she meets on the street. In the heavily used flashbacks we see her during a happier time, spirited and in lust's grip with Franklin(John C. Reilly), the new man in her life. A particularly blissful evening leads to an unexpected pregnancy, marriage, and a fresh start in...

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