R, 1 hr. 52 min. Directed By:
Lynne Ramsay. Release Date:
Jan 13, 2012. DVD Release
Date: May 29, 2012.
I know a movie’s good when my reactions are all over
the place and I don’t have any complaint about what I saw. We Need
to Talk About Kevin is one of those movies.
I had strong, emotional reactions to this, and my righteous indignation
button has been pushed. I'm not exactly famous for wearing kid gloves, although I do sometimes couch my words in my expectation of response, but here, I'm just going to vent.
My riff is going to be out how the people of the
town treat Tilda Swinton’s character.
What in the hell is wrong with people?
Her own son kills everyone in her family before he goes on to massacre
students in his school, and the families of Kevin's victims sue her for every cent she's worth. No matter what
anyone thinks she was guilty of, she had clearly suffered enough. And yet, we’re treated to scene after scene
of the small-town yokels assaulting her, vandalizing her ramshackle home, and harassing her in stores, in her home, and on the streets. I’ve never lived in a town where this kind of
thing happened, never known anyone that was impacted by one of these
Columbine-like events, but one of the things they seem to have in common is the
person in the bell tower has spent their life being bullied by their victims. I’m not condoning the violence, just noting
the pattern. Adults should be smarter
than this. Hell, kids should be smarter
than this, especially since we have more than one terrible, terrible precedent
now.
Truth, I’d have recommended that Eva defend
herself. Probably with a gun. But then, I live in Texas, where I generally
assume I’m the only one not packing heat.
Other than that, I thought Eva with her
unpronounceable last name (Swinton) is probably one of the strongest women in
literature. She endured what her son did
and then the harassment that followed.
No complaint, no attempt to fight back.
No attempt to try and rebuild her own life. She tolerates being shunned by everyone. Tolerates life without friends or
family. Tolerates the unending
blame. She didn’t lose her mind, or
resort to drugs or alcohol. I don’t
understand why she wouldn’t have left town.
Started out somewhere else. But,
admittedly, this wouldn’t be the story (or movie) that this was if she had.
We
Need to Talk About Kevin was an awesome piece of
film making, but not a fun one. It talks about a lot of
tender subjects: violence in schools,
sociopathy, abuse, bullying, and more. I
don’t think anyone’s going to be able to see this movie and not have a strongly
emotional reaction. Not necessarily
mine, but wherever your own personality and beliefs are going to send you. Definitely add this to your queue, or to
your rentals at the next trip to the video store.
I do have one caveat. If you are one of those people for whom time
MUST be represented as a linear construct, by which I mean a movie must flow
from beginning, to middle, to end, you’re probably going to have a problem
here. Time isn’t exactly a priority, and
the movie bounces back and forth within an 18 year old span frequently.
