1. Mickey

   10

   Less a "Bad Seed" rehash than an indictment of contemporary parenting skills, "Kevin" made my skin crawl on many levels. The outer need for perfection while the interior is crumbling, the idea that because a couple CAN have a child, they should, the unwillingness to actually TALK about Kevin... all of this leads to the creation of monster--but that creation is inevitable. Far smarter than most will give this film for, see it and watch it carefully. Until the final, horrific moments, is Kevin the monster, or are his parents? Who created whom? This is a chilling film guaranteed to haunt, and Swinton's performance is perfection. Understated and genuine, she is genius.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 2 users said Yes.
2. mrnice

   8

   A movie where the horror has a purpose to expose the extent of a mother's love. The style is top-notch and the substance is unique. Did I learn anything from it? Well, if I didn't know already, it'd show me an example of how mothers can forgive everything and always love their child, and that it's one of the true graces in life.… Expand

   • Helpful? 0 of 0 users said Yes.
3. 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.… Collapse

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
4. 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.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.

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