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Parenthood Horror: Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk about Kevin” (2011)



The end of 2011 belonged to serious, confrontational cinema. Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk about Kevin and Steve McQueen’s Shame (read my review of Shame here: http://ed-is-a-stranger-on-earth.blogspot.nl/2012/02/true-fiction-steve-mcqueens-shame.html) shocked art-house audiences everywhere by revealing to them the most candid portraits of contemporary society. It is telling that both films were ignored by the fuddy-duddy fogies at the Academy Awards. This embarrassing blunder should say more about the Academy than the two films, which are made of much weightier (and therefore more relevant) stuff than any of the 2012 Oscar-winners.   

Ramsay’s We Need to Talk about Kevin is relentless in the way it broaches its subjects. Are all mothers naturally maternal? it asks us to consider from the get-go. We see Eva (a stellar Tilda Swinton) struggle with motherhood, trying to come to grips with a new addition to her carefree life with her husband. The fact that the new addition is an autistic(?) sociopath in the making does not lighten the mood. Eva catches on that there is something awfully wrong with Kevin – an insidious, manipulative child who embodies a whole nihilist universe. And yet her maternal obligations – imposed on her by society – tell her that she must accept and love the child for who he is. The ending of the film is no surprise to the viewer, as it has already been made clear from the start that Kevin, as a teenager, has done something monumentally monstrous. We follow Eva’s attempts to jumpstart her life after the incident, but at the same time the director continually interrupts the present flow by showing us snippets of the past, those crucial, irreparable moments which will haunt Eva for as long as she lives.   


The viewer experiences the same frustration as Eva: he asks himself if it is possible to continue loving a “monster” as a parent - when the love before had not even come naturally and had to be simulated. This is where the film’s “shock value” lies. In the end, the viewer is shown that Eva DOES in fact still see the “monster” as her son (she remains in the same town, risking ostracisation, just to be close to him), as their last embrace in the film demonstrates. The message here is loud and grating: maternal love has nothing to do with rationality.

Another subject the film takes by the horns is that of born evil - a favourite among the religious and the teleologically inclined. The film itself does not serve up a rambling view of it. Its approach to the subject of born evil is as straight as an arrow: as far as the screenwriter is concerned, it is simply there, and there is no explanation for its being there. To put it in a more contentious way, evil cannot be explained through religion, highbrow philosophy or science. It is there because human nature is where it inhabits. A handful of viewers have found this unsatisfactory, labelling it a “cop-out.” But I say on the contrary. It needs no explanation because evil in itself is already self-explanatory.

Anyone who is thinking of starting a family should first sit down and watch every frame of this film, preferably with a glass of red wine in hand.
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