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We Need to Talk About Kevin Trailer

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Film Blog #4 - We Need to Talk About Kevin

Film Data

Title: We Need to Talk About Kevin Director: Lynne Ramsay Date of Release: October 21, 2011 Country: United Kingdom Genre: Psychological Drama Budget: $7 million Box Office: $24,587 Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=weneedtotalkaboutkevin.htm

Synopsis

The film is told in a discontinuous order through flashbacks and short scenes of the present day and life of Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton). Eva’s memories tell the story that ultimately culminates in the massacre her son, Kevin (Ezra Miller), commits in his high school. The story in the present takes place after the crime when Eva attempts to regain control of her life. She lives in a small rundown house where neighbors are constantly torturing her for the crime her son committed. In the beginning of the film Eva wakes up to her house vandalized with red paint. One of the steps Eva takes to return to normalcy is apply for a job at a mundane travel agency at a local shopping center. Parents of Kevin’s victims routinely harass her throughout the film; a woman slaps her on the street and another ruins her carton of eggs at the supermarket. Eva lives close to the prison where Kevin is held and periodically visits him only to be quiet and uncomfortable during the visits.

The flashbacks in the film present Eva’s fall into despair as she hesitantly becomes a mother and struggles raising Kevin. Eva was once a free-spirited and successful travel writer before she reluctantly bears a child with Franklin (John C. Reilly). Kevin proves to be a difficult baby, he doesn’t stop wailing and drives Eva crazy. As a toddler Kevin is unresponsive and uncooperative while Eva is quickly frustrated by his behavior. When Kevin is a kid, of about 6 or 7 years of age, Franklin convinces Eva to move to a large house in the suburbs. The move out of NYC only adds to Eva’s dissatisfaction. Kevin is a terrible child; he ruins Eva’s decorative maps, annoys her with a made-up language, refuses to learn basic toilet training, and shows no respect for Eva whatsoever. Throughout Kevin’s childhood Eva clearly does not know how to be nurturing. She is tense and has a temper when it comes to Kevin. In one scene Kevin soils his diaper twice just to spite Eva and she throws him against a wall breaking his arm. Kevin uses his scar to blackmail and guilt Eva into doing his bidding such as forcing her to take him home instead of doing errands. The only moment where Eva seems to bond with Kevin is when he is sick. Eva comforts him and Kevin even snuggles up to her when she reads him a story about Robin Hood. Kevin becomes so attached to Robin Hood that Franklin buys him a bow and arrow set. As Kevin grows up he becomes an excellent marksman foreshadowing the shooting he commits at his school.

As a teenager Kevin continues to psychologically torture Eva. As he begins to show more psychopathic behaviors Eva has no one to turn to given that Franklin rebuffed her concerns when Kevin was a child. While Kevin is still a child Eva takes it upon herself to have another child. This time she has a girl, Celia (Ashley Gerasimovich). When Kevin is a teenager Celia is a loving and cheerful little girl eliciting jealous feelings from Kevin. Eva shows Celia much more affection and this prompts Kevin to further torture his mom. When Celia’s pet hamster is found dead in the garbage disposal, and soon afterwards Celia has a severe eye injury with caustic cleaning fluid resulting in needing a glass eye Eva immediately suspects Kevin is at fault. Eva’s suspicion and Franklin’s ignorance leads to growing tension in their marriage and they begin to talk about divorce. It is at this time in their marriage that Kevin starts planning the massacre. Kevin locks the gymnasium doors at his school with bicycle locks and starts shooting down students with his professional bow and arrow set. As Eva hurries to the school after being told there is an urgent situation she recognizes the bicycle lock being cut open by the firefighters and realizes this is Kevin’s doing. Kevin walks out peacefully and imagines the angered screams of the students and parents are applauses. He allows himself to be arrested and Eva goes back home. At the house Eva finds Franklin and Celia bloodied and dead in the backyard where Kevin killed them before going to the school.

The last scene of the film takes place on the second anniversary of the shooting. Eva goes to visit Kevin and for the first time he looks completely terrified. He’s about to turn 18 which means he will be moved to a larger prison for adults. When Eva asks him why he did what he did he anxiously answers that he doesn’t really know anymore. They share an emotional hug, Kevin clinging to Eva and Eva holding his head in a nurturing manner.

Commentary

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a chilling film that depicts the nightmare scenario of any adult who plans on having children. The film is told through the memories of Eva. As she struggles to regain her life the tragedy orchestrated by Kevin flashes through the screen in bits and pieces. Eva remembers key moments throughout Kevin's life that may contributed to Kevin's volatile behavior. The expressionistic style of direction points to the subjectivity of the incident. The director, Lynne, suggests it is very difficult to blame either Eva or Kevin solely. 

The United States has created an image of mothers and children that is essentially and solely consisting of love and nurturance. White upper-class society houses the ideal mother of the United States, one who has few children and dotes on them excessively in order to create successful citizens. We Need to Talk About Kevin presents the social and cultural constructions and limitations of “mother” and “child” through the total antithetical performances of these roles by Eva and Kevin. The behaviors displayed by the two characters refute the preconceived meanings of “mothers” and “children” in the cultural context of the U.S.

As early as pregnancy, Eva does not display the culturally normal behavior mothers are expected to perform. Eva is somewhat disgusted by the state of pregnancy, this is seen when she flinches away from the pregnant women who have their belly exposed as opposed to Eva who covers hers in loose clothes.

The scene after childbirth especially tests the notion of mothers automatically feeling a bond towards their child. Eva and Kevin do not create this bond; Eva sits on her hospital bed and looks utterly defeated while Kevin is being held by Franklin, the father. The image of a mother wanting to hold her child and smiling down at the baby immediately after childbirth has been socially ingrained into the U.S.’s image of motherhood; the film shows a drastic opposite.

Eva’s behavior towards Kevin as a baby challenges the notion of motherhood in the sense that she does not seem completely enamored or happy to take care of him. Kevin’s constant screaming as a baby points to the fact that Eva seems incapable of being a mother. The people who witness Kevin’s screams judge Eva for not doing her job as a mother and consoling her baby. Even though Eva does the best she can to soothe Kevin society is quick to question her skills as a mother. Eva’s endeavor to teach Kevin how to talk and how to do simple tasks such as rolling a ball, counting, and using the toilet properly reveal how easily frustrated she is by him. In contrast to the expected notions of society where mothers are patient with their child and happy to teach them manners and how to behave Eva is only stressed by Kevin and aggravated when his behavior is difficult. Eva's frustration is shown through close-up and medium close-up shots of Tilda Swinton's facial expressions.

A mother is socially viewed as the most loving and caring parent in the kinship system, however Eva proves to be the opposite; her feelings towards Kevin are in sharp contrast to what mothers are expected to feel towards their children, “Mommy was happy before little Kevin came along, did you know that? Now Mommy wakes up every morning wishing she was in France.” Eva’s resentment towards Kevin most likely stems from the fact that society imposes on her the duty to raise him.

Before having Kevin Eva was a free spirit, she traveled and wrote about her travels for a living. In the opening scene of the movie Eva is in pure bliss, completely unburdened by any child.

After having Kevin Eva has to sacrifice her love of travel, her love of the city in order to properly take care of Kevin. Kevin’s atrocious crime leads to Eva being ostracized within her community because it was her supposed duty to manufacture a perfect member of society and she failed. Eva is blamed for Kevin’s actions because society is wholly incapable of blaming the child; they instead blame the mother or outside forces. Childhood has been socially and culturally constructed as a time of innocence. Children are seen as blank slates, completely unaffected by adult issues because adults need this spectacle to combat their anxieties about the future. 

The film suggests that the causes of the tragedy do not lie in outside forces or in Eva’s parental skill; the cause is Kevin. Kevin is a character that totally debunks the notion that children are innocent. He is incredibly confrontational towards his mother and seems to make it his life mission to torture Eva. The actors portraying Kevin have a consistent look in their face in the moments when he takes pleasure causing Eva pain. Once again the camera captures this sinister look through medium close-ups and close-ups.

Kevin’s evil nature doesn’t lie solely in his treatment and behavior towards Eva, but also in his complete manipulation of Franklin. Kevin is incredibly aware that Franklin adheres to the belief that all children are innocent, and he takes advantage of this fact by putting on a façade in front of his father that contradicts Eva’s accusations of his evil. Franklin says, “He’s just a boy. He’s a sweet little boy. That’s what boys do,” referring to the sandwich Kevin smashed against the table just for the purpose of spiting Eva. Franklin’s comments are the prototypical speech parents give about their unruly children, but in the case of Kevin he acts out just so he can get a reaction from Eva. Even when it is clear to the audience and Eva that Kevin killed Celia’s hamster, and intentionally harmed Celia’s eye Franklin refuses to accept the possibility.

The film suggests that the cultural and social constructions of “mother” and “child” are, like all other constructions, completely unstable. These social roles are essentialist in the sense that any deviant performance of these roles is a cause for social unrest. Children who are not innocent and were untouched by the parent’s treatment of them as spectacle present a cause for anxiety and terror. The suggestion that all the effort that goes into the construction of childhood as spectacle could still result in tragedies for society is a disturbing thought. In effect the parents of such children are unfairly blamed and ostracized as Eva was in the film. The limitations society places under the kinship terms of “mother and “child” as well as the kinship system itself of independence impedes the legitimizing of different types of families and places women and children who are unable to conform to these roles at risk.