We Need to Talk About Kevin
Metascore
68 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 37 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 37
  3. Negative: 5 out of 37
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Jan 25, 2012
    100
    As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a masterful film.
  2. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    Dec 8, 2011
    88
    A meditation on the pain suffered by a mother when her child turns out to be a monster, We Need to Talk about Kevin is the perfect tonic for holiday cheer.
  3. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    Jan 13, 2012
    88
    Acting doesn't get much better than the subtly brilliant display put on by Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
  4. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    Dec 8, 2011
    100
    It's a domestic horror story that literally gets to us where we live, a disturbing tale told with uncompromising emotionality and great skill by filmmaker Lynne Ramsay.
  5. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    Mar 22, 2012
    91
    Watching it isn't easy, but it is definitely worth having waited for.
  6. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    Jan 11, 2012
    83
    In its best sequences, Ramsay puts her duress in dazzlingly visual terms, collapsing the past and present in an associative rush of red-streaked images and piercingly vivid moments out of time.
  7. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    Nov 29, 2011
    90
    There are so many great things happening on almost every level of this movie, from Swinton's haunting, magnetic and tremendously vulnerable performance, which is absolutely free of condescension to the suburban American wife-ness of her character, to the many unsettling individual moments.
  8. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    Mar 9, 2012
    88
    Refusing to hold our hands, director Lynne Ramsay ("Morvern Callar") pushes far beyond the boundaries of topical drama into the realm of the surreal.
  9. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    Dec 6, 2011
    100
    The movie toggles between two periods-before and after a catastrophe-and, were it not for Swinton's magnetism, it would be unbearable. Instead, you'll want to stay for the wallop.
  10. Time
    Reviewed by: Mary Pols
    Dec 8, 2011
    90
    Ramsey's film has its own strengths. We Need To Talk About Kevin doesn't just bring you to the outskirts of a parent's worst nightmare; this fever dream of guilt and loss takes you straight inside.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: Leslie Felperin
    Nov 29, 2011
    90
    An exquisitely realized adaptation of Lionel Shriver's bestselling novel. In a rigorously subtle performance as a woman coping with the horrific damage wrought by her psychopathic son, Tilda Swinton anchors the dialogue-light film with an expressiveness that matches her star turn in "I Am Love."

User Reviews

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User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 97 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 33
  3. Negative: 4 out of 33
  1. JennetP
    5
    I found this film kind of a mess. Arty in its silences and temporal jumps, artless in its sledgehammer symbolism (an alternate title could be "We Need to Talk About Kevin's Intake of Food That Looks Like Blood and Body Parts"), the film asks much of viewers but doesn't reward our patience. Anyone who can't predict exactly what will happen--including the weapon and a rough body count--is in the next theater viewing a different movie; I kept watching because some of these "oops, wrong theater" folk wrote reviews in major papers, reviews promising a big surprise. Oh well. But yes, the acting is wonderful, and the nature/nurture question genuinely fascinating. With a stronger script and fewer pretensions, this film could have been truly compelling.… Full Review »
  2. nilz
    4
    I just couldn't quite pull it off. "Kevin" was a film that did many things very right, but did enough things completely wrong to ruin it for me. Its hard to describe the disappointing aspects of the film, because so many of them are tied up with the expectations created by the really well done parts. The visual storytelling starts out strong, enabling viewers to get to know characters and plot elements on an emotional level with out everything being spelled out to the letter. The problem is the film begins to deal with absolutes, and the visual storytelling begins to fail. There are beautifully shot, almost abstract segments in the film which instead of hinting at larger elements of characters and plot, are often used to brush over key elements of relationships (the mother and father in particular) and diluting character development in the process. Kevin's character is portrayed as an absolute evil, and overall a very one dimensional, similarly with the father, who is completely clueless throughout the film. There is a subtlety that is wants so badly to be the core of the film but is consistently failing throughout through the hands of barefaced writing/directing. Tilda Swinton fights hard to keep her character interesting, but the other actors, especially those that played Kevin didn't stand a chance.

    Honestly, I can only Imagine that there were people working on this film who all had vastly different ideas of how it should turn out, and in the end it feels like the directing is what sunk the ship.    … Full Review »
  3. IAmPhongNguyen
    10
    We Need to Talk About Kevin made myself speechless when the credits rolled. It was an absolutely a groundbreaking film and while watching throughout the whole film, I felt the actual depression of a mother thanks to the excellent performance by Tilda Swinton. We Need to Talk About Kevin is a film people should be talking about when I pass them. Right after the film was done, it was official. Kevin was one of the most unpleasant person I've seen on screen.… Full Review »
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