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We Need to Talk About Kevin | 2011 | R | - 6.7.5

After her teenage son (Ezra Miller) murders several of his high school classmates, a woman (Tilda Swinton) is shunned by her neighbors. While trying to recover from the shock and terror of the incident she must also deal with her own guilt and feeling responsible for her son's actions. Also with John C. Reilly, Jasper Newell, Rocky Duer and Ashley Gerasimovich. Directed by Lynne Ramsay. [1:52]

SEX/NUDITY 6 - A husband and his wife have sex (we see her bare breasts and buttocks and his bare chest and buttocks); the woman is shown thrusting on top of the man and they kiss. A husband and his wife have sex (we see him thrusting on top of her and his bare back and shoulders are visible). A wife performs oral sex on her husband; we see her head covered by a blanket at the husband's groin area and he is shown bare-chested (they are interrupted when their young son enters the room). A husband with a towel wrapped around his waist sits on a bed next to his wife, who wears a slip (cleavage and bare shoulders are seen); she kisses his hand, they hug and lie back in bed together (no sex is shown).
 A teen boy is interrupted by his mother while he is masturbating; he glares at her with disdain and continues (we see his bare back and shoulder and we see his shoulders moving rhythmically).
 Pictures of many nude women flash across a computer screening as it is being infected with a virus (we see bare breasts and buttocks, backs and legs). Men are shown bare-chested and smeared with tomatoes during a tomato festival. We see several pregnant women with bare bellies and legs. A woman wears a camisole that reveals cleavage. A teen boy wears shirts that are short and reveal his bare, lower abdomen and belly button. A man is shown wearing a towel wrapped around his waist (his bare chest and back are seen).
 A husband and his wife kiss. A man admires a woman's legs when she stands on a chair near him (she's wearing a skirt). A man and a woman dance at a party. A man asks a woman to dance at a party and he becomes insulting when she declines his invitation.
 A mother and her young son have a frank discussion about how babies are made and the boy uses crude terms to describe what he thinks happens. We see a video of cell division and then see that a woman is pregnant.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - A man is shown lying dead on the ground with two arrows in his back (he is covered with blood). A young girl is shown dead on the ground with an arrow in her back (there's a lot of blood is on her clothing). Several victims are wheeled on stretchers and we see them with arrows sticking out of various parts of their bodies and blood on their clothing. We see a young woman be taken away on a stretcher and it is apparent that she is dead (her mother screams).
 A teen boy places bicycle locks on a high school gymnasium doors, builds a powerful bow and stands on top of bleachers where we later see him shooting numerous arrows presumably toward a crowd of students (we hear screaming but only see the boy shooting the arrows); shortly thereafter, the boy opens the door and exits whereupon he is arrested and taken away by police (we see several wounded students wheeled out on stretchers and blood and arrows are visible on their bodies).
 A young woman pounds on a locked door and we read her lips as she cries for help. A woman speaks to another woman on a sidewalk and then punches her in the face and yells at her. A woman looks in a panic and runs through an office hallway, then pushes through crowds of people that surround emergency personnel outside a school and everyone is yelling and frightened (we see this sequence numerous times). A large crowd of people jeer and yell at a woman as she tries to walk through them.
 A woman turns on a garbage disposal and it is implied that a guinea pig was in the drain (we see the woman's reaction as she pours drain cleaner into the sink but do not see any blood or gore). A woman cleans a young girl's eye wound and we see the soiled swabs lined up on a tissue. A young girl is shown with a patch on her eye and it is implied that her eye was burned with drain cleaner (it is not shown nor explained).
 A woman and her son (from a very young age through his teen years) have a terribly strained relationship and are in constant conflict. A mother throws her son toward a changing table but misses and we see him afterward land on the floor holding his arm (his arm is broken and we see him later with a cast on his arm). A mother slaps her son's hand when he mocks her. A mother becomes enraged after her young son sprays paint on the walls of her room and she stomps on the spray gun that he used (we see red paint splattered on the floor and on her shoes).
 A teen boy takes target practice with a bow and arrow set (we hear arrows hitting the target). A young boy takes target practice with a bow and arrow set and he shoots one arrow (with a suction cup tip) at a window where his mother is working (she is startled).
 A boy picks his nose. A boy picks at a scar on his arm and we see a healed scar on a teen boy's arm. A woman sees that her house and car have been splattered with red paint. A woman looks in the mirror and sees a red streak on her face (it's paint).
 A prison inmate yells and fights as two guards hold him on the floor. A woman yells loudly during childbirth. A baby cries incessantly. A boy makes mocking noises when his mother talks to him.
 We see a young girl with a patch on her eye in several scenes. A young boy splashes water in a newborn baby's face. A young girl is wrapped in tinsel and she tells her mother, "We are playing Christmas kidnapping." A teen boy uses a vacuum on a young girl's hair (she is frightened, but OK).
 A woman hides from another woman in a grocery store. A woman panics when she realizes that the disc she has just put into her computer contains a virus. A woman stubs her toe on a table leg. A young girl is sad when her guinea pig goes missing.
 A husband and his wife discuss separation, divorce and the custody of their two children; their teen son overhears them and becomes upset. A woman drives through dark streets and many people are dressed in Halloween costumes (gorillas, skeletons, etc.) walk across the street in front of her.
 A young boy plays video games with his father and the boy repeats, "Die, die, die." A woman tells her young son, "Mommy was happy before you came along." A teen boy in a wheelchair says, "The doctor's say I may walk again" to a woman whose son caused his injuries. A woman asks a doctor about her son's lack of speech development and wonders if he might be autistic. A young boy snaps crayons in half as his mother talks to him. A young boy tells his father, "Go away, I'm tired." A woman is insulting when talking about people who are overweight. A teen boy talks about sex and drugs in a condescending manner with his mother. A boy (maybe 5-6 years old) comes into his parents' room and says "I pooped." A teen boy talks about how people potty train cats and says that their noses are pushed into feces and that they don't like that so they use the box.
 A boy lies on a floor motionless, his mother carries him to his room, and we see splattered vomit on the floor as the woman cleans up the mess with a towel. A boy (5-6) stands in a room with his mother after she has just changed his diaper; he appears to be pushing, we hear the sounds of flatulence and it is apparent that he has had another bowel movement. We see a video of cell division and then see that a woman is pregnant. We hear a boy urinating and a toilet flushing (we do not see anything).
 We see several scenes where half-eaten food is left on plates, and food is smeared and spilled on a table. A boy throws food at a refrigerator and we see the food splatter. A teen boy bites his fingernails, pulls the pieces out of his mouth and lays them on a table. A woman buys eggs that have been broken in the box, and picks the shells out of her mouth while she eats them. A teen boy gnaws on a large piece of cooked meat (it could be a turkey leg). A teen boy tears at a piece of bread and rolls the pieces into balls while at a restaurant. A teen boy eats a piece of fruit in a disgusting manner and juice squirts out of his mouth. We see an aerial view of crowds of people smeared and splattered with tomatoes; a woman is lifted into the air and is then placed into the street, which is flooded with tomato juice and pulp. A woman plunges her face in a sink of water in a couple of scenes. A teen boy plunges his face into a sink of water in a couple of scenes.

LANGUAGE 5 - About 5 F-words (1 from a young boy), 3 sexual references, 7 scatological terms (3 mild), 5 anatomical terms (2 mild), 6 mild obscenities, name-calling (dumb, retard, fat, harsh, stupid, chick), 2 religious profanities, 2 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A woman takes a prescription pill with a glass of wine, we see prescription drug vials on a table and when the table is jolted several pills spill on the floor, and prescription spills are scattered on a table. A woman is shown drinking wine in many scenes, a woman holds a glass of wine (we do not see her drink), a man drinks a beer and a woman is shown drinking a glass of wine in a few scenes. A woman smokes a cigarette and a woman holds a burning cigarette.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Mass murder, parenting, marriage, divorce, fresh start, autism, psychopaths, psychosis, vendettas, resentment, hate, mental illness, eternal damnation, afterlife.

MESSAGE - It is impossible to emotionally or intellectually reach some people.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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