We Need to Talk About Kevin (film)

We Need to Talk About Kevin
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lynne Ramsay
Produced by	Jennifer Fox Luc Roeg Bob Salerno
Screenplay by	Lynne Ramsay Rory Stewart Kinnear
Based on	We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Starring	Tilda Swinton John C. Reilly Ezra Miller
Music by	Jonny Greenwood
Cinematography	Seamus McGarvey
Editing by	Joe Bini
Studio	BBC Films Forward Films
Distributed by	Artificial Eye
Release date(s)	12 May 2011 (2011-05-12) (Cannes Film Festival) 21 October 2011 (2011-10-21) (United Kingdom) 9 December 2011 (2011-12-09) (USA; NY/LA) 13 January 2012 (2012-01-13) (Limited)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$7 million
Box office	$4,339,547

We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2011 British-U.S. film adapted and directed by Lynne Ramsay from U.S. author Lionel Shriver's 2003 novel of the same name. A long procession of development and financing began in 2005 and filming eventually commenced in April 2010.

Tilda Swinton stars as the mother of Kevin, struggling to come to terms with her son and the murders he's committed. The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was released in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2011.

Plot

Adolescent Kevin Katchadourian (Ezra Miller) is in prison after committing a massacre at his high school and killing his father and little sister using a high tech bow and arrow set. His mother, Eva (Swinton), a once-successful travel writer, lives alone in a run-down house and works in a mall travel agency in a town near the prison where she visits Kevin. She looks back at her memories of him growing up as she tries to cope with the anger and hostility of her neighbors, who know her to be Kevin's mother. Her memories are shown in flashbacks.

Throughout Kevin's life he has been detached and difficult. He does not bond with his mother; as a baby he cries incessantly, resists toilet training, rebuffs her attempts at affection, and shows no interest in anything. While he is still small, Eva's frustration with his intractability drives her to throw Kevin against the wall, breaking his arm. When Eva tries to talk to her husband, Franklin (John C. Reilly), about her increasing concern about Kevin's problems, he dismisses her concerns and makes excuses for Kevin's strange behaviour. Their second child, Celia, is lively and cheerful. Kevin finally shows interest in something when Franklin gives Kevin a bow and arrow set and teaches him archery. Kevin becomes an excellent marksman. When Celia's pet is killed, and she is blinded in one eye by an incident with a caustic cleaning fluid, Eva is convinced Kevin has hurt her and her pet on purpose, while Franklin insists these events were accidents and that he is blameless. This pattern of suspicion on Eva's part and excuse on Franklin's intensifies Eva's fear of her son, as she sees growing evidence of Kevin's pleasure in hurting others. This culminates with his plotting and executing the multiple killings of his father, Celia, his teachers, and fellow students, and his imprisonment for the crimes.

The film concludes on the second anniversary of the massacre, when Eva visits Kevin in prison. Kevin is anxious because his eighteenth birthday and transfer to an adult prison is imminent. Eva asks him why he committed the murders and he responds that he no longer knows why. Eva gives Kevin a hug and says her good-byes while he is taken away.

Cast

• Tilda Swinton as Eva Khatchadourian
• John C. Reilly as Franklin Khatchadourian
• Ezra Miller as Kevin Khatchadourian
  • Jasper Newell as six-eight-year-old Kevin
  • Rocky Duer as infant Kevin
• Ashley Gerasimovich as Celia Khatchadourian
• Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Wanda
• Alex Manette as Colin

Development

In 2005 BBC Films acquired the rights to adapt the book as a film. Executive producers Paula Jalfon and Christine Langan took it through the development stage, and were joined by executive producer Steven Soderbergh.

Lynne Ramsay, who became available after her involvement in the film adaptation of The Lovely Bones came to an end, signed on to direct, and was working on a script with In the Bedroom writer Robert Festinger by 2006. Shriver was offered a consultative role in the production process but declined, stating she had "had it up to [her] eyeballs with that book", though she did express concern for how the film would capture Eva's role as the unreliable narrator. Production had not begun by 2007, though BBC Films renewed the adaptation rights early in the year. In an interview with The Herald in September 2007, Shriver stated that she had not been in contact with Ramsay about the film for over two years. Ramsay's spokesman told the newspaper that a new script draft was being prepared and, at the time the interview was published, had not been submitted to the producers. Michael Clayton producer Jennifer Fox joined the production team in 2008; the film was expected to begin shooting that year. The script appeared on the 2008 Brit List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays in British film. Ramsay's partner Rory Stewart Kinnear also contributed to the final shooting script.

Fox announced in March 2009 that Tilda Swinton, with whom Fox had worked on Michael Clayton, had signed on to star in the film as Eva. John C. Reilly was cast as Franklin in January 2010. Casting for the role of Kevin was still ongoing as of October 2009. Ezra Miller was confirmed in the role by the time filming commenced.

BBC Films neared the end of the financing stage of pre-production in May 2009. Christine Langan told the London Evening Standard in February 2010 that the long delay in production had been caused by BBC Films having difficulty funding the high budget; Ramsay rewrote the script so the film could be made for a lower cost. The UK Film Council awarded £18,510 to the production from its development fund in the same month. Financial backing was also provided by Footprint Investments LLP, Caemhan Partnership LLP and Lipsync Productions, and production is in association with Artina Films and Forward Films.

Filming commenced on 19 April 2010 on location in Stamford, Connecticut, and concluded on 28 May 2010. A key filming location was J.M. Wright Technical High School in Stamford. Jonny Greenwood of the band Radiohead composed the film's score.

Release

In October 2009, IFC Films picked up the rights to international sales, and made pre-sales at the American Film Market. Artificial Eye distributed the film in the UK from 21 October 2011. Oscilloscope Laboratories will distribute the film theatrically in North America in the winter of 2011.

The film premiered In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it was met with praise from film critics.

Reception

We Need To Talk About Kevin received strongly positive reviews. The film currently has an 80% "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes; its consensus says "We Need To Talk About Kevin is a masterful blend of drama and horror, with fantastic performances across the board (Tilda Swinton especially, delivering one of her very best)". On Metacritic, the film received a 71 out of 100 based on "generally favorable reviews".

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars and said, "As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, We Need To Talk About Kevin is a masterful film".

Jake Martin, a Jesuit priest and movie critic, wrote in his review in Busted Halo that the film is not "yet another installment in the pantheon of post-modern films intent upon assaulting the human desire to give meaning to the world." Instead, he says, "We Need to Talk about Kevin in fact needs to be talked about, as what it is attempting to do by marrying the darkest, most nihilistic components of contemporary cinema with a redemptive message is groundbreaking."

Tilda Swinton was nominated for a number of acting awards, including a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA for Best Actress in a leading role.

External links

• We Need to Talk About Kevin at the Internet Movie Database
• We Need to Talk About Kevin at AllRovi
• We Need to Talk About Kevin at Box Office Mojo
• We Need to Talk About Kevin at Rotten Tomatoes
• We Need to Talk About Kevin at Metacritic