I never thought that the last movie I watched in 2016 was actually "We need to talk about Kevin".
The atmosphere of the whole film is depressing, and the red color used deliberately in many places seems to imply the massacre at the end. Even though the movie scenes are mostly sunny and the BGM is mainly cheerful, there is no joy in this film.
The story is interspersed, somewhat similar to the narrative technique of God in "Memento", which fully shows the development of the mother-son relationship between Eva, the mother, and Kevin, the son.
Eva, a young literary woman with poetry and a distant place in her heart, became a mother by surprise, and her child Kevin inherited her stubbornness and meanness without fail. Being a mother and son, but being against each other all day, is sad in itself, and unfortunately, Eva takes the wrong approach to the problem between mother and son. When Kevin cried when he was a baby, she hugged him, but there was no tenderness in her eyes, she even pushed Kevin to stand beside the construction site, just to let the loud noise cover her son's cry; when Kevin was three or four years old, She told him unabashedly, "Mom was happy before she gave birth to Kevin", forcing the fault on the child. Kevin undoubtedly loved his mother so much that when he was older, he deliberately fell ill just to win his mother's attention. But it was also because he longed for his mother's love that after seeing his mother make a soothing gesture that he had never done to him while his sister was crying, he became jealous and began to brew revenge years later.
When the slaughter was over and he bowed to the empty stadium with a bow and arrow, I was even more sure that Kevin's character was indeed morbid, and his lack of motherly love as a child forced him to desperately need attention, one way or the other. So I think the Holocaust has actually been staged countless times in his heart, but the news that his father planned to send him to join the army on the eve of his 16th birthday instantly made him feel that he had lost the last bit of support and was about to be abandoned by the whole world. To dispel his anger, he detonated the bomb that had been silent for more than ten years in advance.
Of course, Kevin's tragedy is not only caused by the simple right and wrong between the mother and son, but also the father's laissez-faire factor. If the father can help mediate the conflict between mother and son in a timely manner, instead of being blinded by Kevin's disguise and blindly partial, That's another story.
After watching the movie, I remembered what Kotaro Isaka said, "I feel chills down my spine when I think of human beings who don't need to pass exams to become parents." No matter how most viewers hold the "sociopathic personality" accountable, I believe that human nature is good. If Kevin's parents could face up to his problems and guide him correctly, or when Eva realized that he was not ready to be a mother, he decided to If Kevin is not born, then there will be no subsequent problems at all.
All in all, "What Happened to Kevin" is an excellent movie, whether it is a realistic and profound theme, a meticulous script, or the wonderful performances of the actors, it is all worthy of 8+ points. But in the 110-minute movie, except for the warm moment at the end, every frame is depressing to death. So, it's a good movie, but it's by no means a good movie for a second brush.
View more about We Need to Talk About Kevin reviews
