We Need to Talk About Kevin is an unsettling and emotionally intense experience from start to finish. Through the perspective of Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), the film depicts the events that lead up to, and follow, her son Kevin’s (Ezra Miller) massacre of the teachers and students at an American high school. A harrowed Swinton must live with the loathing of the other parents and the possibility that her upbringing of Kevin led to his actions.

A seamless collage of the preceding events of the flashbacks and killing presents the audience with the pieces of the puzzle which mesh to create the complete, horrifying story of the massacre. Kevin is cold, distant and spiteful in every stage of his life and the actors, despite their youth, present his sinister demeanor beautifully.  Miller delivers a particularly chilling performance of the fully-fledged sociopath. He is truly captivating to watch and utterly convincing in his detachment. Swinton is similarly phenomenal in presenting an incredible emotive depth to her performance. Together their relationship is jarring, creating an almost hypnotic effect; often troubling to watch ,but nevertheless impossible to look away.

The use of sound throughout creates a profound effect, and perhaps paradoxically, enhances the extended silences, which are used masterfully to strengthen the discomfort between Swinton and Miller. Part of the power of the film resides in its implicit nature. The audience is presented with fragments of information and must interpret these so that an image of how truly horrific Kevin becomes is created. It therefore gains its emotional gravity by aligning the audience with Swinton, as both parties attempt to understand Kevin.

We Need to Talk about Kevin is a sinister psychological portrait of the difficulties of parenthood. There is an overwhelming sense of inevitability, which makes Swinton’s guilt increasingly unnerving. However, the most poignant aspect of this film is its depiction of a coarse reality, in which atrocities like these actually occur. The film resonates long after the credits, as it engenders a penetrating, emotive response and involvement; nothing more than this could be desired from a film.