We Need to Talk About Kevin
Oscilloscope Laboratories | Release Date: December 9, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
68
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
6
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJan 25, 2012
As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a masterful film. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranDec 8, 2011
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. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfDec 6, 2011
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. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMar 22, 2012
Watching it isn't easy, but it is definitely worth having waited for. Read full review
90
TimeMary PolsDec 8, 2011
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. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 29, 2011
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. Read full review
90
VarietyLeslie FelperinNov 29, 2011
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." Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 9, 2012
Refusing to hold our hands, director Lynne Ramsay ("Morvern Callar") pushes far beyond the boundaries of topical drama into the realm of the surreal. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJan 13, 2012
Acting doesn't get much better than the subtly brilliant display put on by Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 8, 2011
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. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubScott TobiasJan 11, 2012
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. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 26, 2012
It's not easy to make such a downbeat movie compelling, but that's what Ramsay, with great help from her star, has done. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondDec 9, 2011
Uncomfortably tense but worth savoring, particularly because of Tilda Swinton's devastating lead performance. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 8, 2011
Ms. Ramsay, with ruthless ingenuity, creates a deeper dread and a more acute feeling of anticipation by allowing us to think we know what is coming and then shocking us with the extent of our ignorance. Read full review
80
EmpireLiz BeardsworthNov 29, 2011
A triumph for Ramsay anchored by terrific performances. Guaranteed to haunt you for days, and possibly prompt a rethink on your position on parenthood. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovFeb 2, 2012
It's a disturbing film on many, many levels, but beautifully shot (by Seamus McGarvey) and shot through with a horrific sense of false hope. The kid is not all right. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayMar 1, 2012
Lynne Ramsay's thoughtful, unnerving film works its strange power over viewers who are likely to find themselves as compelled as repelled by its fatally flawed key players. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMar 1, 2012
Tilda Swinton is the star of We Need to Talk About Kevin, and her performance is so complex and volcanic and transfixing that all of the film's flaws melt away. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJan 28, 2012
Ramsay seems to be seriously intent on probing the outer limits of a mother's love and forgiveness, but the boy (played by a trio of child actors) is so unremittingly evil that the movie begins to feel like a grotesque remake of that old John Ritter comedy "Problem Child" (1990). Read full review
70
NPRBob MondelloDec 9, 2011
The film's bluntness doesn't diminish the power of the nature-versus-nurture questions Eva's asking herself. Or of Swinton's harrowing portrait of parental guilt. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttNov 29, 2011
This is, in a way, a real horror film about everyday things and a disconnected family. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMar 24, 2012
Next to Swinton's excellent portrayal of a woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown, the movie belongs to the two Kevins, young actors with matching arched eyebrows and sullen expressions. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanDec 7, 2011
The movie is creepy, but it has no texture or depth. It's like "The Omen" directed by Miranda July. Read full review
65
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 8, 2011
We Need to Talk About Kevin is a little too facile in the way it sets up the horrific climax: Just one look at this kid and you know he's trouble, yet no one besides mom can see it. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMar 8, 2012
Fragmented, dreamlike, a whir of memories and misery, We Need to Talk About Kevin is unsettling, but also somehow unnecessary. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyNov 29, 2011
Ezra Miller's sneering, absurdly precocious evil-child performance makes him just another bad-seed horror villain. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensDec 12, 2011
Even in the film's weaker stretches, the fierce presence of Tilda Swinton made it impossible to tear my eyes away. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierDec 8, 2011
This is a mother's tale, and in Swinton's expert hands, Eva must ultimately deal with the fallout from an uncomfortable truth: She just never liked her kid. Read full review
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMar 22, 2012
Critics starved for thoughtful movies will often mistake the will for the deed. A serious film about an important subject seems like an important film, even if the effort falls far short of the target. So it is with We Need to Talk About Kevin. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 26, 2012
All the movie has, really, is Tilda Swinton acting up a storm, which is more than enough for some. For me, given what's up with the rest of the picture, it's not quite. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJan 14, 2012
It's a creepy and disturbing movie, but there's not a lot going on behind people's eyes. The soullessness lacks soul. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthDec 6, 2011
By treating Kevin's evil as a mystery to be solved, Ramsay only succeeds in making what was once allusive banal. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickDec 9, 2011
In this pretentious art-house downer version of "The Bad Seed," the only surprise is that the folks didn't ship the little monster off to the looney bin before he reached puberty. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezDec 4, 2011
The purpose of Lynne Ramsay's hodgepodge approach is to distract us from the flimsiness of a story that suggests a snide art-house take on "The Omen." Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 8, 2012
Ramsay delivers an overdirected, conceptually obnoxious art film that's torture to sit through, listen to, and think about. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 1, 2012
It is a very good performance in a very bad movie. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedNov 30, 2011
This is the most unwatchable horror movie masquerading as social comment I have seen this year. Read full review
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