We Need To Talk About Kevin
Ezra Miller is quickly becoming an actor to look out for. While most notably his recent casting as The Flash has propelled him into super stardom, the films that came before him burn with this talent and personality unparalleled by his generation of actors. You just have to look at his other well established film The Perks of Being a Wallflower where he plays Patrick. It could’ve easily been a role that, in the hands of a lesser actor would be camp and stereotypical. But with Miller, he was able to enhance Patrick with a humility and understand that transformed him into a pivotal character. Miller may have had roles like these, and bit parts is stuff such as Every Day and City Island, but the one role that blows everything that he has done out of the water is his stirring evocative turn in We Need To Talk About Kevin.
Based on a novel by Lionel Shriver, We Need To Talk About Kevin is a tentative and haunting drama about the aftermath of tragedy. The film follows Eva Khatchadourian as she tries to piece together her life in a small town where her son, the titular Kevin, rampaged and killed students in a high school massacre. Plagued by guilt and grief, as well as prejudice from the community that believes she is in some ways to blame, Eva goes back over her relationship with Kevin. As she regresses over warning signs and family life with the boy, she most confront the awful truth; did she ever love her son? And was that the reason he turned out a psychopath?
Miller’s execution of Kevin is so beyond his years that he is marvellous to watch. That icy cold stare and worded manipulation of his mother is thick with intelligence and a lack of emotion. Miller is wary not to romp around in this villainous role, camping it up with one-liners. Instead, it is an undercurrent of viciousness, poised on an act that fools everyone but Eva and her incompetence to love him. Kevin here is an eloquent and Miller places a mask on him so that his nihilistic behaviour is only uncovered with a keen eye offered through retrospect and the voyeurism of the audience. Kevin, despite showing signs so early on of his intentions and personality defect, is a mastery of trickery and Miller fleshes out the beast whilst still making him human and child-like.
Yet, as marvellous detailed and enriching Miller is as Kevin, this is Tilda Swinton’s role as she manages the different incarnations of Eva. Trembling with the burden of Kevin from before he was born, Swinton is perceptively aware of how Eva is not guiltless. Through the fear of life, the violence against her without her family to lean upon, to the initial pregnancy where her trepidation is unearthed quickly, Swinton shrewdly encompasses the arch of a matriarch, damned by the actions of her son. The performance is nuanced, beating with this combination of desperation for a connection with Kevin and her clear lack of it. She is striking, remarkable and shows Swinton’s truly powerful talent that roars defiantly here.
Director Lynne Ramsey’s adaptation is flawless. The narrative, split between the past and present, is sublime edited with this gorgeous horrific cinematography. What’s clever is the moments of memory, threaded together in Eva’s life. As an instant sends her chaotically back to the awful times or a threat reminds her of the life’s lost at the hands of the son, Ramsey allows the narrative focus to split making our viewing just as chaotic as Eva’s psyche. It is a glorious way of deftly handling memories broken by tragedy. It’s sensitive and enthralling, engaging and scary. We Need To Talk About Kevin is a must see drama.