2011
112 minutes
rated R
by Scott Mendelson
It would be argued that Lynne Ramsay's bracing We Need to Talk About Kevin is among the least literal pictures since Inception. By that I mean it can be (correctly?) interpreted any number of ways, or it can be appreciated at face value for the tale it appears to be telling. Whether it's a straight-ahead horror story, a striking parable, or a fantastical 'what-if?' that operates as the opposite of a wish-fulfillment fantasy, the film is a powerful piece of work and features a stunningly good lead performance by Tilda Swinton. At heart, it's about the horror of not being able to bond with your child, and thus not really loving him/her, as well as the inexplicable pressure on parents (arguably more-so on mothers) to never have a cross thought about their respective offspring. If you're one of four people reading this who don't know how the story eventually goes, I'll do my best not to reveal it here. But the ultimate destination plays out less as surprise and more as a resignment. This is not a film about 'dealing with the unthinkable', but rather about a mother who sees the writing on the wall but is powerless to stop it.
