After the feel good pleasures of The Artist (which I blogged about yesterday) Lynne Ramsey’s We Need To Talk About Kevin is guaranteed to bring you down to earth with a jolt. It proves that you don’t need graphic violence to make an effective horror movie.
In a non-linear narrative, episodes from Eva Khatchadourian’s life converge as she tries to piece together the events before and after her 15 year old son commits horrific Columbine type murders.
In Lionel Shriver’s novel Eva’s grief and psychological torment unfold through a series of letters to her husband Franklin. The only way to render this in cinematic terms would have been to have a voiceover from start to finish, a device which Ramsey and co-scriptwriter Rory Stewart Kinnear wisely reject. The central perspective remains that of Eva, superbly played Tilda Swinton, but this is largely conveyed in visual terms. Continue reading
