Tilda Swinton stars as “Eva,” a mother desperately searching for answers after a tragedy. What did she know & when did she know it? And why, once her worst fears began to come true, didn’t her husband “Franklin” (John C. Reilly) see the danger too?
Director Lynne Ramsay locks us into Eva’s POV; we never know the real “Kevin” Ramsay creates from her 3 astonishing young actors (Rock Duer as “Toddler Kevin,” Jasper Newell as “Kid Kevin,” & Ezra Miller as “Teen Kevin”), but she convinces us that Eva’s heartbreaking epistemological dilemma is both real & totally relevant to our own lives.
Start Here: Our legal system presumes that someone is “innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” but how can you “prove someone guilty” before they’ve done “it”–the thing you fear is about to happen? And how do you explain your concerns when they are based on nightmares rather than facts? And what if you do try to put your “gut feelings” into words, but the person you love most doesn’t want to hear you?
These are the issues around which Kevin’s spiraling plot turns, and Ramsay has written a great screenplay (with co-writer Rory Kinnear) that honors all the complexity of Lionel Shriver’s award-winning novel.
If I ruled the world, We Need to Talk about Kevin would have received multiple Oscar nominations on 1/24/12 including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Score, and Best Supporting Actor X 2 (for both Reilly and Miller)… but when the day came, Kevin was completely shut out…
And so it goes
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Tilda Swinton (left) with John C. Reilly (right): Long-married, still in love, but totally unable to discuss the difficulties that have now overwhelm their lives.
Photo Credits: Nicole Rivelli

















