The Deep End of Parenthood

We Need to Talk About Kevin

***1/2 out of ****

Directed by: Lynne Ramsay

Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Rock Duer, Jasper Newell and Ezra Miller

Running time: 112 minutes

In We Need to Talk About Kevin, a gripping adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s harrowing 2003 novel, Tilda Swinton plays Eva Khatchadourian. At the film’s start, Eva hides behind thick sunglasses as she waits anxiously at a travel agency.

Although she once worked as a travel agent and even had dreams to venture off into voyages around the world, she now sits impatiently and waits for a job. She could really use a vacation.

Living in a cramped bungalow, Eva spends meager sums on food but sinks the rest of her stomach with Chardonnay. She doesn’t engage in the flighty fun she used to know. Meanwhile, her neighbours dowse her house and car with red paint in the middle of the night.

Eva has done no crime, or has she? Months ago, her son Kevin (played as a teenager by Ezra Miller) perpetrated a vicious high school massacre, killing a handful of his classmates. When she visits him in prison, the two sit in stony silence, even though there’s plenty to talk about.

The big question is, did Eva’s conflicted relationship with her son have an impact on his decision to commit murder?

Stories of family abuse generally focus on the unyielding power a parent figure has on their child. We Need to Talk About Kevin, Lynne Ramsay’s vivid, expressionistic take on Shriver’s award-winning novel, reverses this approach. Instead of the domineering mother or father, the seed is the seed of hatred and dread in the family tree.

Kevin, from infancy (when he is played by Rock Duer) to bitter prankster youth (Jasper Newell from ages six to nine), is a living nightmare. He torments Eva with mind games and misbehaviour, mocking her attempts to be motherly and sensitive, while manipulating her to get his way.

Kevin’s persistence at wrecking his mother’s life is offset by his seemingly sweet relationship with his father, Franklin, a giddy child at heart played by John C. Reilly (an inspired casting choice). Franklin doesn’t notice how his wife becomes drained by her son’s annoyances – “That’s what boys do,” he tells her, referring to Kevin’s wild behaviour.

Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation improves on the source material by treading even deeper into Eva’s psyche than the novel did. Shriver’s tale is written in the form of correspondences between Eva and Franklin. However, Ramsay does with feelings, colours and sounds what Shriver’s novel couldn’t with words.

Ramsay uses alarming sounds – a ticking clock pounds on the soundtrack, trickling up constant feelings of dread – and bold, bloody red images to enter her tormented subconscious.

Despite combating the aches of mothering a horrible child, Eva keeps fighting the strain that is her unfortunate parenthood. Swinton’s portrayal is gaunt but gripping due to how closely she treads between resisting Kevin and exploding with menace at her calculating child. It’s a riveting performance in a deeply unsettling triumph of a film.