The novel We Need To Talk About Kevin was published almost a
decade ago now, sold a huge number of copies and won the 2005
Orange Prize, so its plot and themes are fairly well-known. But on
the off-chance you have yet to read it or see the film, which was
released last year, I'll risk being a bit too vague about some
major plot points in the hope that I won't spoil it for you.
The story, then, very vaguely, is this: Tilda Swinton's Eva is
haunted by memories of family life - both the good and the bad -
with husband Franklin (John C. Reilly) and daughter Celia before
son Kevin, with whom she has always had a difficult relationship,
does something terrible, an act that tears apart both his family
and the wider community.
Having read Lionel Shriver's novel several times (and loved it),
I went in to see the film knowing that there was a (slim - because
I have a lot of faith Tilda Swinton) chance I'd be disappointed by
Lynne Ramsey's adaptation. Instead, I was impressed by just how
great the adaptation is. Tilda Swinton was born for this role (and
the title role in Sally Potter's Orlando, of course), and her Eva
is entirely believable and nuanced, expressing rarely seen (in film
at least) varieties of parental love, a love deeply marked by years
of frustration and anger. Ezra Miller, as the teen Kevin, is
wonderful too, capturing his character's determined arrogance
almost too well to make comfortable viewing. The pace of the film
is great, switching between Eva's present - working for a shabby
travel firm, Travel R Us, and suffering attacks from locals who can
not forgive her for her son's actions - and the past.
As has been remarked on before, it is the relationship between
Kevin and Eva that is the centre of the original novel and its the
voicing of and exploration of this relationship that proves so
compelling in the film, too. The scenes between Swinton and Miller
are electric (and the younger Kevin is great also) and,
importantly, the moment of realisation towards the end is as
shocking as in the book. This makes We Need To Talk About Kevin, I
think, a must-see film.
We Need To Talk About Kevin is released on Blu-ray and DVD
on 27 February
