The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Eva
is expecting a child with her husband Franklin (Reilly). They choose to have
the baby despite Eva’s less than maternal disposition and, lo and behold, Kevin
(Miller) turns out to be every parent’s worst nightmare. As a baby, he doesn’t quit
screaming, he refuses to be potty-trained until he turns seven and generally delights
in yelling at his mum and being contradictory. Not helping matters is Franklin’s
insistence on turning a blind eye to Kevin’s idiosyncrasies, chalking them up
to Eva’s growing paranoia.

As Kevin’s sadistic tendencies increase, so do Eva’s
suspicions and Franklin’s denial. Eva treats Kevin like a ticking time bomb,
always wary when around him and constantly on her guard so as not to anger him.
She considers him a blight on her existence and her body language renders her
revulsion very apparent, yet she’s overjoyed whenever he shows her a little
affection. The film poses the question: is Kevin’s sadism a result of his
decidedly non-maternal mother or is it intrinsic? Is it nature or nurture?

We Need to Talk about Kevin is quite
long and lags quite a bit in the middle, yet it showcases some great acting and
editing that make the film worth watching. The film is told in the form of
Eva’s flashbacks. We see snippets of her life pre-Kevin then as he grows into a
toddler, child and teen. It’s very apparent right from the start that Kevin’s
done something unspeakable and it’s this act that foreshadows the rest of the
film. It hangs heavy over a downtrodden, defeated Eva and is the reason behind
her quiet acceptance of her neighbours’ abuse, which she does as a way of
assuaging her guilt and seeking redemption. 

Both
Swinton and Miller bring nuance to their characters, making the film very
pleasantly ambiguous. Their acting makes you unable to easily judge the
characters and render them angels or saints. You see the rationale behind their
actions and understand how they were thinking and what they were going through
at the time. It makes you empathise with two people who have rather awful sides
to their personalities, even if one is far more monstrous than the other. In
addition to the main duo, Jasper Newell as the 7-year-old Kevin is a revelation.
He’s innocent yet resentful, exasperated and hurt. His performance makes
Miller’s that much more credible and poignant.

Reilly,
on the other hand, doesn’t fare as well as his co-stars with a character that
isn’t nearly as fleshed out. He seemingly exists just to coddle Kevin and make
Eva doubt her intuition, which becomes the biggest factor behind her guilt over
Kevin’s actions and destroys her self-esteem.

We Need to Talk about Kevin is
quietly terrifying and will have you horrified before you even find out the
specifics of Kevin’s atrocity. It’ll have you pondering just how badly parents
can mess you up and at what point a child becomes entirely responsible for
their own actions regardless of their environment.