2011 - 2.3/5
When I first heard this title, it was with regards to the book. It wasn’t a book that I knew I had to read so I’ve never gotten around to it. I heard that the movie existed (apparently 4 years after it was made) and figured I may as well give it a shot.
I knew it was about a boy named Kevin who killed his fellow students at school, but the movies main character was Kevin’s mom, Eva, and what went on her in life after the fact. I was expecting this to be a psychological drama, but all I really got was a drama.
It should have given you more at the very start to hook you; the tomato scene left the viewer searching for meaning. It didn’t have a definitive point to show the direction the plot was going in. What it established for me was that Eva was a free spirit that loved to travel; which eventually lead to the viewer understanding that she never really wanted a kid and she had zero patients to deal with one. I don’t think it was an appropriate way to start the movie. It was not a good way to set the flow.
Tilda Swinton did an amazing job as Eva. You could see the emptiness in her eyes. She portrayed the bleakness so well in her mannerisms. However, my one gripe with that would be that those types of shots happened so often and it was pushing the boundary of “okay, this is getting to be a bit much”.
When it comes to teenager Kevin, I thought Ezra Miller did a great job. You can tell that he’s not new to acting, but he’s not as polished as he could be.
As for John Riley, I think he did a good job, but realistically, as the dad, he should have noticed how Kevin was treating Eva.
Some scenes were too long; some didn’t belong at all. This did make the movie drag at these points.
When it comes to Kevin’s behaviour (from birth to teen), it’s a hard pill to swallow that he was evil from the get-go. There are SO many factors that can play into this and the movie didn’t really touch on them. Why wouldn’t anybody else that interacted with Kevin pick up on it (for example, his teachers). Does that mean he was more manipulative than we think - not just towards his mother? But that’s what I’m trying to get at; the point I’m trying to make, there are SO many ways you can interpret this movie, and the movie needed to have it more focused. I understand that people with mental issues are all different regardless of the fact that they can be diagnosed with the same illness, however, considering this movie is about Kevin, it should have focused more on him and I just don’t think the movie did that by leaving everything up to the viewer to figure out.
I found it odd that the director attempted to add tension (not sure if this is the best word to use though) in the 3 interactions Eva had with town folk: when she gets slapped in the face, the eggs, and her coworker saying nobody would want her at their Christmas party. I just don’t get why she would think that that’s what she deserved. Obviously I don’t understand what someone in that position would truly be thinking, but my point is that the movie presented it in a really odd way.
Overall, I did enjoy it, but it did drag at times and it left a lot of things open to interpretation. I wouldn’t bother watching it again, but I would recommend it to select people.
