Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of Lionel Shriver's controversial novel is one of the most sobering films about the family unit I have ever seen. Kevin Katchadourian (Ezra Miller) begins the story in prison after committing a mass murder at his school, and from here we go back as his mother Eva (Tilda Swinton) tries to come to terms with why Kevin did it, and what part she played in it. Swinton delivers here what is easily the best work of her career, playing a shell-shocked husk of a human being, having to deal with bereaved parents spitting in her face, and the subsequent anguish over whether her failure to bond with her son led to this tragedy. Though all of the children who play the various iterations of Kevin are excellent, Ezra Miller is superb as the teenage version, aptly capturing the moody obnoxiousness of the age, and the creepier facets of his personality too. The film will not be for all tastes because it does not explain Kevin's actions, but that is the film's point: life isn't tied up in neat bows with convenient expository explanations for everything. Sometimes, even often, life is ambiguous, and the results are rarely totally conclusive.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
