Every once in a while a movie comes along that so appeals to what I like in a movie that it becomes one of my personal favorites. Among that sacred list are films like The Devil’s Rejects, The Orphanage, Pan’s Labyrinth, Inside, Eden Lake, High Tension, The Natural, Let the Right One In and many more. I recently sat down to watch a film that I didn’t know much about, but the trailers and posters for the film really caught my attention and admiration.
Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton) is a once successful travel writer who decided to leave her career behind when she met a man named Franklin (John C. Reilly). They settle down and before long have a baby boy they name Kevin. Franklin continues to work and Eva stays home with the baby. From the moment Kevin arrives Eva feels uncomfortable with the situation, struggling to find a connection with her new son. As Kevin grows older, the emotional distance between mother and son grows wider and wider with Kevin gushing over his father and taking a severe dislike to Eva. Once Kevin is a teenager, a horrible event makes Eva think over and reconsider every choice she has ever made and consider where the blame for Kevin should fall.
To say anything more about the events in We Need to Talk About Kevin is to ruin the visceral experience. Swinton gives one of the best performances of her career as the regretful and sad Eva. The range of emotion and the severe character arcs she goes through, much of it without words, is awesome to behold. John C Reilly is also very good, shedding his usual goofy persona to play a loving and caring father and husband who is astoundingly unaware of what happens under his own roof. But where Swinton is the heart of the movie, and Reilly is the brain and supposed common sense, Ezra Miller’s Kevin is the dark, dark evil heart of the film. Miller’s performance is one of the most chilling and incredible I have ever seen. He is the personification of menace and it is not easy to figure out why. In fact, the reasons for Kevin’s actions and in fact, his whole personality are left to the viewer’s imagination, there are no clean cut answers in this film. But what an experience to watch it unfold. The writing, directing and acting are all top notch and utterly compelling.
The BluRay from eOne is a beauty. Detail and clarity are amazing with some great fine details in facial close-ups, especially on Ezra Miller. Blacks are solid and inky and colors are nice and saturated. Overall, this is a very nice transfer. The film is not an easy one to digest, and while it may not be particularly graphic for the most part, the subject matter is very dark and examines not only mother/son bonds and what happens when it is not present, but also brings up questions of evil’s existence itself. One of the very best movies of the year. Highly recommended.
