Eva is attempting to play the part of mommy as defined by popular culture; the cooing, gooey, all-encompassing ubiquitousness to her child. Site Map | It asks, "who is to blame when something horrific happens?". We also did a lot of blue screen work before, which really helps with the imagination. In Maternal Horror Film: Melodrama and Motherhood, Sarah Arnold identifies how mothers as characters suffer from a Manichean oversimplification, or as she calls it the unstable ideology of idealised motherhood. Of course, that mental illness is presumed by viewers. 2003-2023 Best Little Sites, LLC. By provoking her, Kevin is able to get some precious emotional honesty out of her. Yet it is in those infrequent instances of relief, conversion and mercy that the film finds its identity and direction. After you see the film, think about it. Years later, the birth of her daughter Celia, on the other hand, feels more festive. The story revolves around a family of four, but the main focus is on the relationship between the mother (Eva, played by Tilda Swinton) and the son (Kevin, played by Rock River, Jasper Newell and Ezra Miller). Something just happened. Written by Julia Wolf. Following the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, we caught up with actress Katy O'Brian to talk about her MCU debut as Jentorra, deleted scenes with Bill Murray, and a whole lot more! Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. Is she channeling the brief moment of affection between the two when he was young and sick, or is she working toward being a better mother upon his release? So, I think it'd be really cool to explore that either in future Quantum Realm stuff or if somehow I got sucked out into the surface world or something, any of that would be fun. He doesn't have the emotional capacity to have a disturbed son, and so has decided that he doesn't and that's the end of it. We Need to Talk About Kevin 2011 | Maturity rating: 15 | 1h 52m | Independent Films When her 15-year-old son's cruel streak erupts into violence, his mother wonders how much blame she deserves for his actions. Franklin himself lives in a state of demented decency, deceiving himself that his family are living acceptable lives. Advertise, Funny Superhero (DC & Marvel) Shirts & Stickers. Selena Gomez recently opened up on how the autoimmune condition is affecting her weight due to water retention from all the medication in her recent Tik-Tok live stream. He can't understand her, but don't you suppose he understands her dislike? The name itself Eva is not chosen by chance, echoing the fatally disobedient woman of the Bible, whose act determined the loss of the Garden of Eden. Her only crime was perhaps hurrying into the role before she was ready. American release: January 27, 2012. The truth to motherhood is a harsh one. Together, with Hopes parents Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), and Scotts daughter Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought possible. But he hates her the most due to her pretense and dishonesty, it seems. Stripping the screenplay off words, the disturbance arises from a seamless amalgamation of image and sound. But recent years have shown horror films can write mothers full of contradictions that challenge the status quo. Left to pick up the pieces is his mother, Eva (Tilda Swinton). In We Need to Talk about Kevin, Eva is literally on trial for parental negligence. Her public perception is unlikely to change, but Eva appears firm in her choice to stick around for Kevin's sake. For full Oscars coverage and commentary by its reviewer, Fr. Children seldom get that attention, though. Kevin was not necessarily abused or tortured as a child, many kids endure much worse and did not end up as mass killers. So, what did that exchange mean for the Khatchadourians? He seems to recognize that he has some advantage over her. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. Also, stripes are a striking feature that connects Kevins clothing sense from childhood to adolescence. A prolific writer and the ostensible head of a travel agency, Eva cares more about her own unfulfilled wishes than her ever-menacing son. The past and present intertwine as Eva recalls Kevins formative years from childhood to adolescence, hoping for clues on what went wrong. Copyright 2023. He answers, I used to think I knew why, and now Im not so sure. This small act of hesitant humility is followed by Kevins embrace of his mother which can only be likened to the embrace received by that infamous scriptural progeny upon his arrival home. He is pursuing a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at Heythrop College in London. Eva often looks like she's in a state of shock. Prefer Ramsay's earlier pictures to this flawed but interesting piece. Kevin's bedroom is actually the biggest red flag in the film, and the fact that neither Eva nor Franklin noticed that Kevin's bedroom clearly displays the signs of mental illness until he was fifteen years old proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Franklin had never looked in his bedroom, wasn't interested in his interests or hobbies, and didn't want to know what he did in his spare time. Kevin is seen to be wearing short clothes most of the time, like when Eva takes him out for mini-golfing. She has something of an answer as to why Kevin committed such terrors, but where does that leave her? Menu. Use the boards for extended discussion. This is also true of Eva, but we see the conflict in her about her son's mental state. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we have officially entered the dead of winter that time after Christmas and New Years when, Earlier this year my home parish welcomed a new associate pastor. The same 7-year-old also says, "I don't give a rat's ass." Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking Mild 35 of 50 found this mild Adults are sometimes shown casually drinking wine. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Swinton told me of a line in the script that wasn't used, wisely, I believe. Trademark | Maternal ambivalence turns into filial antagonism, colouring her perception of him as inherently evil. and our It suffers from an excess of clunky foreshadowing and there's very little I find believable about the characters' actions. Overview. From the beginning, Eva is detached from motherhood. The real monster is expecting nothing less than unconditional love. Directed by Peyton Reed and produced by Kevin Feige, p.g.a. Swinton is collecting a bevy of early plaudits and nominations, as well she should. Kevin, it seems, has a method to his madness. What makes this all worthwhile is the fact that Tilda Swinton is simply an astonishing actress who can bring off anything. It's no secret that We Need to Talk about Kevin is intended to challenge your assumptions about the people we think of as "evil." Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), a former travel writer, gives up her life of adventure when she becomes pregnant. Going on, she again asks the question of responsibility and says, "I don't know. Kevin is a defiant baby who screams incessantly but never around Franklin. Though unlike the Shakespearean character, the question of Evas guilt has a lot less cut-and-dried answer. Some interpreted scene at the gym as her being repulsed by pregnant bodies, but I am thinking she was like "why can't I be happy and bubbly with this child like they are?" Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, Eva either doesnt know or refuses to know what a more meaningful relationship with her son would look like; thus when their dinner begins with her asking him how school is going, Kevin immediately shuts her down, offering up a clichd mother/son dialogue full of rote questions and deadened responses. SPOILER. The camera zooms in, but the scene cuts just before we can get a peek on what's on the other side of it. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eva rushes to the school to see Kevin getting arrested. The second is Kevin's bedroom. At first glance, it would seem that Kevin is yet another installment in the pantheon of post-modern films intent upon assaulting the human desire to give meaning to the world. About | Twice in flashbacks to Kevin's parents in their dating days, a UPS terminal with trucks can be seen in the near background. Prosecutors downgrade charges in Alec Baldwin shooting case, Die Hard star Bruce Willis has frontotemporal dementia, condition worsens, As We Need to Talk about Kevin turns 10, a look at what made it such a haunting meditation on motherhood. Cookie Notice KATY: We had this whole scene where we're all cheering at the end kind of thing. Was he acting out to punish Eva? Like Lady Macbeth, she tries to scrub the guilt off her hands. The point here is not to understand Kevin at all. Swinton said as much in an interview, Its about her fears and the horror of what she knows about herselfusing him as a kind of projection of her own self-loathing. ROHAN: Since Jentorra is the leader of the rebellion, was there anything specificyou tried to channel or watch to get into her headspace? While the film isn't as explicit as the book, both versions of Eva are grappling with Kevin's final answer as they wonder if it's even worth feeling weighed down by the question of responsibility. Annie Graham in Hereditary is conflicted by feelings of love and hate, resentment and remorse, towards her son. The novel by Lionel Shriver relates the story through a series of letters Eva writes to her husband Franklin. He hates Eva for a plethora of reasons her neglect, her coldness towards Kevin, and Franklins misguided overcompensation for the lack of Evas love. We see this throughout Kevin's early developmental journey. ComicBookMovie.com is a registered trademark and has been officially registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). So what about Franklin? It is true that there is nothing unusual about giving birth to children in order . That's a deeply human tale, and it calls to us, and I think that's why I see takes on the movie saying that it even encourages the viewer to think evil is in our nature and is immutable. When we see an overdressed Eva beside Kevin, the distinction between the two becomes clear as daylight. Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. Kevin is a story of hope for a new millennium, an It's a Wonderful Life in the age of school shootings and planes crashing into buildings -- a world-weary world that has been bombarded by nihilistic themes in their narratives for the better part of a century. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Franklin, on the other hand, does not give him a path to honest interactions. Community Guidelines | He completely denies the reality of Kevin's personality and identity, and thus any agency over their relationship. The kind of clothes one chooses is also indicative of ones social status. Kevin overhears his parents talking about a divorce, which adds to his anger towards the world. Art and Divine Beauty: An Antidote to the Winter Blues, The Prodigal Son: How to Overcome the 3 Lies We Tell Ourselves. Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2021/Final edition), NEW TOURNAMENT: [PPE] RYM Picks the Most Outstanding Acting Performances in Cinematic History, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2020 edition), Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2019 edition), Dark/Sinister films that have upbeat music during the credits, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2018 edition), RYM's Preferred Female Performances: 2011, Top Films of the 2010s as voted for by RYM (2017 edition), United Kingdom, United States, 35mm, Color, Dolby Stereo, Literary Adaptation, Artificial Eye, Code Red, Oscilloscope Pictures. All Rights Reserved. In front of his mother, Kevin is often a difficult, menacing and unresponsive boy. But Kevin is just getting started, and his final act will be beyond anything anyone imagined. Kevin's mother struggles to love her strange child, despite the increasingly dangerous things he says and does as he grows up. Eva and Franklin never seek psychiatric help for their son; they can't talk about Kevin without fighting. Eva was never allergic to being a mother of course. Kevin knows that Celia is his mothers favorite offspring, and he goes to great lengths to make his mother feel uncomfortable. Maybe everything else is intended to be a flashback, and the timeline begins when she finds out what Kevin did at his high school. The mistake would be to take the film apart and try to reconnect the pieces in chronological order. Eva's point of view is obviously not reliable, and her segments are intended to portray that she's entered a cycle of deep self-abuse over having raised a psychopath. While Eva and Franklin argue over the accident, Kevin taunts his mother by peeling a litchi, with a smug look on his face. Some of the content presented on our sites has been provided by fans, other unofficial websites or online news sources, and is the sole responsibility of the source from which it was obtained. Read on for our full interview with Katy O'Brianand please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my channel for exclusive content! : we had this whole scene where we 're all cheering at the end kind of.... Hates her the most due to her husband Franklin inherently evil of an answer as to why Kevin committed terrors... Mother struggles to love her strange child, many kids endure much worse and did end! The imagination, but Eva appears firm in her choice to stick around for Kevin 's personality and identity and! Is presumed by viewers to my channel for exclusive content also, stripes a... 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