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We Need to Talk About Kevin is a masterful blend of drama and horror, with fantastic performances across the board (Tilda Swinton especially, delivering one of her very best).
All Critics (199) | Top Critics (45) | Fresh (151) | Rotten (48) | DVD (3)
It becomes a film about her [Swinton] scattered mind. That produces wonders from Swinton, but it ignores the plea in the title. What about Kevin? Kevin deserves so much more attention-indeed, he deserves being played by Tilda Swinton. Jun 19, 2013 | Full Review…
It becomes a film about her [Swinton] scattered mind. That produces wonders from Swinton, but it ignores the plea in the title. What about Kevin? Kevin deserves so much more attention-indeed, he deserves being played by Tilda Swinton.
David Thomson
Fragmented, dreamlike, a whir of memories and misery, We Need to Talk About Kevin is unsettling, but also somehow unnecessary. Mar 9, 2012 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…
Fragmented, dreamlike, a whir of memories and misery, We Need to Talk About Kevin is unsettling, but also somehow unnecessary.
Steven Rea
"We Need to Talk About Kevin" is confrontational cinema that will leave you speechless. Mar 9, 2012 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
"We Need to Talk About Kevin" is confrontational cinema that will leave you speechless.
Joe Williams
Director Ramsay makes Kevin's impact all the more felt by coming at it from all angles. Mar 9, 2012 | Rating: A | Full Review…
Director Ramsay makes Kevin's impact all the more felt by coming at it from all angles.
Tom Long
Some movies punish you, but you take it because you're getting something out of the bargain: an insight, a performance, art, adrenaline. Then there are the movies that punish you for the heck of it. Mar 8, 2012 | Rating: 1/4 | Full Review…
Some movies punish you, but you take it because you're getting something out of the bargain: an insight, a performance, art, adrenaline. Then there are the movies that punish you for the heck of it.
Ty Burr
Ramsay may be aiming for a character study of Kevin, but she ends up merely listing the ingredients needed to make a murderer. Mar 2, 2012 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…
Ramsay may be aiming for a character study of Kevin, but she ends up merely listing the ingredients needed to make a murderer.
Rafer Guzman
We Need to Talk About Kevin feels like a daring art installation, filled with the obvious color red as a metaphor. But it should have been more than a metaphor - it should have been about life and the awful ways it can end. Jan 4, 2019 | Rating: 1.5/4 | Full Review…
We Need to Talk About Kevin feels like a daring art installation, filled with the obvious color red as a metaphor. But it should have been more than a metaphor - it should have been about life and the awful ways it can end.
Kelly Jane Torrance
It may be one of those pesky films that is awful to watch but is worth watching all the same. Oh, dear. Aug 31, 2018 | Full Review…
It may be one of those pesky films that is awful to watch but is worth watching all the same. Oh, dear.
Deborah Ross
It poses difficult questions, and perhaps has too easy answers. But it's a grueling and fascinating interview process. Aug 30, 2018 | Full Review…
It poses difficult questions, and perhaps has too easy answers. But it's a grueling and fascinating interview process.
Pat Padua
This nature-vs.-nuture argument is what gives the story its power; and Ms. Swinton does an excellent job portraying a woman ambivalent to the bone about her little boy. Aug 9, 2018 | Full Review…
This nature-vs.-nuture argument is what gives the story its power; and Ms. Swinton does an excellent job portraying a woman ambivalent to the bone about her little boy.
Sarah Manvel
Lynne Ramsay's third feature is a mishmash of soiled diapers, leaden musical cues and underlined soul-sickness. Jan 9, 2018 | Full Review…
Lynne Ramsay's third feature is a mishmash of soiled diapers, leaden musical cues and underlined soul-sickness.
Fernando F. Croce
Swinton hoists the film from a possibly melodramatic mire to a crushing discussion on the impact of nature vs. nurture. Nov 6, 2017 | Full Review…
Swinton hoists the film from a possibly melodramatic mire to a crushing discussion on the impact of nature vs. nurture.
J Hurtado
A disturbing, terrifying and emotionally devastating drama that examines how evil can grow inside people from the way they are raised - and Tilda Swinton is wonderful in an Oscar-deserving performance as a mother who doesn't have any idea how to raise her son.
Super Reviewer
A mother whose life is ruined by her son's violent act struggles to make sense of his actions and move on. A slow and meandering film, Lynne Ramsay's contemplative drama asks many questions about parenthood, violence, and sociopathy but offers very few answers; for such high topics, one can't blame it for that. For example, we don't get easy answers like gratuitous child abuse or violent video games to saddle Kevin's behavior on. The flashback moments of Kevin's early childhood are all unsettling, and while the multiple storylines don't always mesh to a consistent narrative, Ramsay succeeds in creating an oppressive and tense mood. Overall, if you're tied to the traditional three-act narrative, this film isn't for you, but it is a strong character-based mediation.
Basically the Anti-Boyhood, this film hints at a horrible crime carried out by a teenage son and then tells us in flashbacks about his upbringing and the mother's coping with the tragedy. That's quite a demanding task for Swinton who aces her role in every aspect. She's the center of attention. While we get glimpses of Kevin's childhood and how things already went badly there, we're never told why or what exactly went wrong. In the end, his final act of violence is so unadulterated evil and shocking, that it feels like you have been watching a horror film all along. Of course the director was out for that, while refusing to give a comfortable explanation. But it also takes away some of the realism and leaves you so disturbed you're wondering what you've been watching for two hours. A film that is hard to love but should be viewed at least once. I bet some of the images will stay for a very long time.
GREAT acting. It is strange and dark the way the story is told, maybe too artsy at times... but I am happy I stuck with it to the end. Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller are very talented!
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