Darlings, We Need To Talk About This Film!!!!!!!!!!!

Girls, I wish I could say I was genuinely blown away by Lynne Ramsey's film, "We Need To Talk About Kevin," but, truthfully, I was not. I was more blown away by Lionel Shriver's novel of the same name, which I read several years ago. I think it works better on the printed page, because she uses an epistolary style. The novel is a series of letters Eva writes to her ex-husband, Franklin. Within these letters, you see what happens. And there is a tradition here. Within the realm of child pathology fiction, "The Bad Seed" in many ways set the gold standard. In the novel, the little girl's mother, Christine Penmark, writes a series of letters to her husband, delineating the situation as it progresses, but never mailing them. When she decides to do what she does (overdose Rhoda on sleeping pills, and then shoot herself) she gets rid of the letters, so that her husband will never know the truth. Which was her big mistake.

If any of what I have said in the above, darlings, sounds familiar, it casts a pall over the film, for as I watched it, I had this chronic, nagging feeling of "been there, done that." Even without having to read the book, one can sense what is coming, although the final atrocity (which Eva discovers only after she returns home from the school shooting) elicited genuine outcries from the audience, whom I could tell had not read the book--but these same outcries were raised by me when I did. If there is any novelty to the film, it is its visual style--which abandons the epistolary form of Shriver's novel, for surreal, snippets of distorted time, that, in the beginning, seem too gimmicky and confusing. As we settle in for what we know will happen, this style, combined with the sterile setting of the house--especially the interiors--this family lives in, keeps the viewer at a clinical distance, so the film is not nearly as horrifying in its impact as Shriver's book.

Moreover, with three different actors playing Kevin at three different stages of his life, there is no way for the audience to develop a relationship with the character, and offering an acting performance for us to judge. Each of the young actors ably go through their motions as required, without being especially penetrating or compelling. This would include, too, Ezra Miller, the nearly grown Kevin, who commits the heinous deeds the film leads up to. He is all externals, not letting us see what lies beneath, which is a poor choice, because the denouement is all the more incomprehensible. But maybe that is the point Ramsey is trying to make.

Or maybe that is the point she is trying to make about the audience. Having been saturated with similar enactments on the "Law And Orders," or "Cold Case," or "CSI," I have to wonder--have we become so immune to human horrors that, when they do occur, we are now able to react with a kind of detachment, rather than shock or outrage????? If so, this says more disturbing things about our society, and perhaps one's reaction to this film is proof of that. Ironic to me, was that, at the time I viewed this film, I was reading Timothy Benford's book on the John List case, "Righteous Carnage", which did elicit the shock and horror this film did not, not only because I was responding to something that had been a big deal in my New Jersey based past, but because, by today's standards, List's act still epitomizes cold and calculating evil. Not that the evil of Kevin is not apparent; the film simply does not offer any insight into it. Which begs the question of whether that is indeed the intended point, or an otherwise specious excuse. I leave that one to you, darlings!!!!!!

The real reason to see the film is a riveting performance by Tilda Swinton as Eva, the mother. Who, interestingly, despite Swinton's hardened looks, comes off as a more sympathetic figure than she did in the book. Eva clearly made every effort to bond with her child, even if she wasn't the warm, fuzzy, Mary Poppins type. It just did not take. And we are made to feel her frustration and horror on all levels.

The film examines also the suburban underbelly. Losing just about everything, forced to sell her affluent home and downsize to a house in what is obviously the Wrong Side Of The Tracks, Eva, in remaining in her community, becomes the town scapegoat. The scene where she is walking down the street, and a townsperson chats her up, then smacks her hard across the face, saying, "I hope you rot in Hell, you motherfucking bitch!" struck me as disturbing as the shootings at the school. Evil flourishes in all guises.

It may sound like I am highly recommending this film. I do, but with caution. Swinton's performance is the glue holding it all together, but the film is unsettling due more to its detachment than to its ability to provoke.

Nevertheless, when you come out of it, you are going to want to see "The Sound OF Music," or something along those lines!!!!!!!!!!!

The hills are still alive, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!