We Need to Talk About Kevin. 2011. USA/Great Britain. Directed by Lynne Ramsay. Screenplay by Ramsay, Rory Stewart Kinnear, based on the novel by Lionel Shriver. With Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller. 35mm. 112 min.
Lynne Ramsay’s film examines a tormented mother grappling with feelings of accountability and intense grief after her troubled 15-year-old son commits an act of violence that shakes their community to its very core. Eva (Tilda Swinton) had a promising career when an unplanned pregnancy threw her life off-balance, though she selflessly put her own ambitions aside to give her son, Kevin, a good life. From the moment Kevin was born, there was a palpable tension between mother and son. Years later, as a teenager, Kevin (Ezra Miller) snaps. As the community recoils from Kevin and his family, Eva begins to question whether or not she ever really loved her son in the first place. John C. Reilly co-stars in this psychological drama based on the novel by Lionel Shriver.