becomingkate (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
becomingkate) wrote2014-01-17 12:04 pm
becomingkate) wrote2014-01-17 12:04 pm
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We Need To Talk About Kevin
What I think is interesting about this movie is that the title is never uttered in the film, and probably should have been.
I wasn't expecting this movie to be so unsettling. I knew the premise, but the way it's filmed is disturbing. Not terribly graphic but just striking enough to make me a little nauseous.
Ever since Breaking Bad and all the PURPLE (I pointed it out to my husband and from then on whenever effing Marie's house was drenched in purple we'd shout out "PURPLE!") and the article I read afterwards about the use of other colors that I never noticed, I notice more when I watch a movie. A good movie, anyway. The symbolism, use of colors, the continuity of scenes and sound effects and music, it was all really good in this movie. The constant use of paint splatter, the color red, the sound of the sander and the lawn sprinklers and other repeated themes throughout the movie were really interesting to watch.
From the very beginning Eva (Tilda Swinton, who is just awesomeness) and her son don't get along. He won't talk, won't respond to simple commands like "say mama" or "roll the ball back to me" but then proves he can, and immediately reverts to not speaking or following directions. His pediatrician, I assume, checks his hearing and other vitals and tells Eva that "nothing is wrong with him". This is where the movie bothers me. She took him to one pediatrician, once? No second opinion, no psychologist, no annual exams, she couldn't even take a video at home to show the doctor how he defies her?
The husband (John C, Reilly, who I also love and was sadly underused in this movie) doesn't believe Eva, either. And that pisses me off too. Why is it that the husband, who is supposed to love and support his family, immediately disbelieves his wife? I get it, he seemed to have fallen out of love with her. But couldn't he at least give her the benefit of the doubt and get help for his son? He disbelieves her so much that he files for divorce and gets full custody because he believes that Eva is off her rocker. Nice.
Teenage Kevin is played by Ezra Miller, who I recognized from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He was great at being chilling and charismatic at the same time. Little Ezra was good too.
I was disappointed in the adults' roles in this movie. They let this kid, who was clearly not quite right, grow up disturbed and he ended up committing murder at his high school. The father told Eva that his behavior was fine, that it's because he's a boy and blamed things on her instead.
I also didn't really understand the anger towards the mother. I guess it never occurred to me that that kind of backlash would happen if your son committed murder.
If she had just gotten him help...I mean I understand being disenchanted with being a mom. Oh boy, do I. But I still care about Josh-so that if he were exhibiting behaviors like little Kevin was, he'd be at a psychologist so fast, and people would listen to me until someone believed me. In fact, he is. He's an angel compared to Kevin and I have him in therapy! It is absurd when I think about it. But I think it's good for him to have someone to talk to. Obviously Kevin had nobody to talk to since he had it out for his mother and his father didn't believe he had issues.
I guess that was the whole point of the movie. That the father's blindness to the problems and the mother's lack of caring all led up to the school massacre. It doesn't always happen like that though. I bet sometimes the parents do care. They do their best raising their child and it's still messed up. Scary, and probably not the best movie for me to have watched at this time.
What I think is interesting about this movie is that the title is never uttered in the film, and probably should have been.
I wasn't expecting this movie to be so unsettling. I knew the premise, but the way it's filmed is disturbing. Not terribly graphic but just striking enough to make me a little nauseous.
Ever since Breaking Bad and all the PURPLE (I pointed it out to my husband and from then on whenever effing Marie's house was drenched in purple we'd shout out "PURPLE!") and the article I read afterwards about the use of other colors that I never noticed, I notice more when I watch a movie. A good movie, anyway. The symbolism, use of colors, the continuity of scenes and sound effects and music, it was all really good in this movie. The constant use of paint splatter, the color red, the sound of the sander and the lawn sprinklers and other repeated themes throughout the movie were really interesting to watch.
From the very beginning Eva (Tilda Swinton, who is just awesomeness) and her son don't get along. He won't talk, won't respond to simple commands like "say mama" or "roll the ball back to me" but then proves he can, and immediately reverts to not speaking or following directions. His pediatrician, I assume, checks his hearing and other vitals and tells Eva that "nothing is wrong with him". This is where the movie bothers me. She took him to one pediatrician, once? No second opinion, no psychologist, no annual exams, she couldn't even take a video at home to show the doctor how he defies her?
The husband (John C, Reilly, who I also love and was sadly underused in this movie) doesn't believe Eva, either. And that pisses me off too. Why is it that the husband, who is supposed to love and support his family, immediately disbelieves his wife? I get it, he seemed to have fallen out of love with her. But couldn't he at least give her the benefit of the doubt and get help for his son? He disbelieves her so much that he files for divorce and gets full custody because he believes that Eva is off her rocker. Nice.
Teenage Kevin is played by Ezra Miller, who I recognized from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He was great at being chilling and charismatic at the same time. Little Ezra was good too.
I was disappointed in the adults' roles in this movie. They let this kid, who was clearly not quite right, grow up disturbed and he ended up committing murder at his high school. The father told Eva that his behavior was fine, that it's because he's a boy and blamed things on her instead.
I also didn't really understand the anger towards the mother. I guess it never occurred to me that that kind of backlash would happen if your son committed murder.
If she had just gotten him help...I mean I understand being disenchanted with being a mom. Oh boy, do I. But I still care about Josh-so that if he were exhibiting behaviors like little Kevin was, he'd be at a psychologist so fast, and people would listen to me until someone believed me. In fact, he is. He's an angel compared to Kevin and I have him in therapy! It is absurd when I think about it. But I think it's good for him to have someone to talk to. Obviously Kevin had nobody to talk to since he had it out for his mother and his father didn't believe he had issues.
I guess that was the whole point of the movie. That the father's blindness to the problems and the mother's lack of caring all led up to the school massacre. It doesn't always happen like that though. I bet sometimes the parents do care. They do their best raising their child and it's still messed up. Scary, and probably not the best movie for me to have watched at this time.