YMMV / We Need to Talk About Kevin

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Essentially the entire point of the book and movie. The narrative asks – and never fully answers – if Kevin was born evil, or if he was made that way over time.
  • How much horror Kevin actually committed himself as a child, and how much of it was actually committed with ill intention, can also be up for interpretation.
    • Of course, this ties into the alternate interpretation of Eva herself. Did her tendency to think the worst of Kevin make him even worse than he was? Did the adversarial nature of their relationship bring him true joy? Was her dislike of him so evident from the beginning that she caused him to go bad? Was Eva intelligent and sharp, or was she as pretentious and judgmental as Kevin said?
  • Eva notes that Kevin always hated the word "favourite" and that he picked the students he did because they all had something they were passionate about, something Kevin found enraging as he regards everything as pointless. But did he kill those kids and his teacher because they annoyed him, or because they were capable of finding something they felt actual passion for, while Kevin was utterly unable to do so? Similarly, did he kill Franklin and Celia because Eva loved them, but she didn't love him?
  • Was Kevin genuinely remorseful at the end, or was he trying to secure an advantage? Does he feel some level of remorse for his crimes, or is he aware that he'll have nowhere to go once he leaves adult prison, and needs to keep Eva on side?
• Award Snub: Many feel Tilda Swinton was robbed of an Oscar, let alone a nomination for her performance. It gets particularly virulent when arguments arise over Meryl Streep getting yet another Oscar for what many feel was an undeserved nomination, though the nature of said role probably didn't help one iota.
  • A number of people also felt that Ezra Miller should have been considered for a nod too.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: All the flash-forward scenes made it pretty obvious that something bad is going to happen at the school, even if you didn't know anything about the film beforehand (even if it wasn't entirely clear exactly what it was). The real shocker was that after what we're led to believe is Kevin's worst deed, a few minutes later it's discovered that he also murdered his father and sister, which was never a part of the flash-forwards.

• Diagnosed by the Audience: In the book, Celia is terrified of everything in the world, has highly specific sensory issues, spinelessly bends to every one of her friends' and classmates' wishes, and is so afraid of failure that she simply will not answer easy questions, which can read to some modern readers as autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, or a mix of both. These traits are largely left out of the movie, though.

• Funny Moments: Albeit unintentionally funny, but there’s a few here and there.
  • Immediately after Kevin gets his diaper changed (at the age of 6), he looks at his mom with the coldest expression, and shits his pants again as if on cue! It's almost no wonder Eva tossed him hard enough to break his arm!
  • How Eva handles the Jehova's Witnesses:
    Jehova's Witness #2: Do you know where you're spending the afterlife?
    Eva: Ohhh, yes — I do, as a matter of fact. I'm going straight to hell. Eternal damnation, whole bit. Thank you for asking.
  • When Eva and Franklin look for Celia's Guinea pig Mr. Snuffles Franklin immediately assumes the worst:
    Franklin: Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to mourn Mr. Snuffles (Eva drags him down under the couch, both trying to hold in their laughter) who was, who was snuffed out, tragically early!
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • "Yep, your brother's a heartbreaker."
  • The film adaptation moved the setting from New York State to Connecticut. One year later, a school shooting happened in that very state.
  • One could be forgiven for assuming that the movie came out after the Isla Vista killings, given the similarities between Kevin and Elliot Rodger.
  • Kevin's violent behavior, which culminates in committing a massacre at his school, became more discomforting once portrayer Ezra Miller's real-life behavior turned out to be very aggressive itself (and that's not counting arrests for burglary and accusations of grooming).
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • There's a genuine one in the book. While visiting Kevin in prison, Eva makes small talk with another prisoner's mother, who knows exactly who Eva is and what her son did, but doesn't judge her in any way. When Eva admits she worries what happened was her fault, the other woman simply squeezes her hand and says, "It's tough to be a momma." It's one of the only times in the book where someone acknowledges that, regardless of how Eva raised Kevin, she didn't make him do what he did.
  • One combined with a bitterly ironic Tearjerker from the book. Eva reveals that when she heard there was a shooting at Kevin's school, she immediately dropped everything and went straight there to make sure he was alright. Despite her dislike of him, despite knowing what sort of person Kevin is, she never — not once — thought he could possibly be the shooter until she saw it for herself.
  • In a sick way, the ending of the novel itself: Eva spends much of the "present day" sections of the narration lamenting about how lonely she is as the mother of a school shooter with very few people understanding or sympathizing with her. Her visits with her son, once she starts to fight and argue with him and seemingly interact with him in a way that he understands (as opposed to the attempts to be motherly throughout the novel up to this point), cool into kind of a mutual detente built of their mistrust and general distaste for one another. But he begins to open up to her by the end of the novel, even fashioning the coffin for Celia's eye as a gift for her and Eva prepares to welcome him into her home once he's released from prison. Part of it is possibly due to her love for Franklin and respect for his love of family, but also because he is literally the only other person in the world who she might be able to relate to after all; a familial feeling generated not from love, but from their shared history.
• Iron Woobie: Yes Eva is an Unreliable Narrator who very well could be of Kevin's Freudian Excuse but Good Lord this woman did not deserve the pain and heartbreak she received (and will likely continue to receive). The fact that she still continues to go on despite everything shows her to be tough as old leather.
• It Was His Sled: Much like Heathers before it, the main twist regarding a school shooting became the most talked-about part of the film. The novel never hides the fact that Kevin shot up his school and in fact reveals it within the first chapter, so for the film to treat it as a twist was probably doomed to fail.
• Jerkass Woobie: All of the Khatchadourian family qualifies, except Celia.
  • Eva isn't the nicest person, and not exactly the sort of woman you'd want to hang out with, particularly in the book. However, she's put through so much shit that it's impossible not to sympathize with her.
  • From a certain point of view, it's possible to feel a little pity for Kevin. Yes, he's a monster, but he was also born to a mother who never wanted him (which he's very aware of) and a father who doesn't understand him, and his mental disorder has robbed him of the ability to find happiness in anything, ever since he was a toddler.
  • Franklin is a terrible husband who categorically refuses to admit Kevin does anything wrong, regardless of what anyone says, including his own wife. But it's implied that this intense, callous obliviousness is born out of a desperation for things to be good and normal despite all evidence to the contrary, and his failure to adequately respond to his son's clear emotional and psychological issues from a young age lead to his marriage falling apart, his son loathing him, and he and his daughter being murdered, with Eva noting that his expression in death is a deep disappointment.
• Memetic Mutation: After Ezra Miller's repeated scrapes with the law started making headlines in 2022, people started jokingly calling the film "We Need To Talk About Ezra", or joking that "it turns out We Need to Talk About Kevin was a documentary this whole time!"
• Paranoia Fuel: The entire book and film run on this. Your child could end up being a sociopathic killer, regardless of your efforts or how much affection you show them.
• Questionable Casting: Franklin is described as a tall, broad, ruggedly handsome, WASP-y Republican with a shock of thick blonde hair. The movie instead casts character actor John C. Reilly, who is not the most traditionally handsome actor, is stocky with curly brown hair and looks as Irish-American as his name is.
• Squick:
  • Kevin biting his nails and placing them down in order.
  • Kevin having a really nice time right in front of Eva.
  • Eva having to swab Celia's empty eye socket.
• Tear Jerker: Celia's entire life is one big one.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Despite the film's praise, most agreed that the most underused character was Franklin, particularly with an actor with the pedigree of John C. Reilly cast to play him. In fairness, the book is an epistolary novel, which doesn't translate well into film and so that format was dashed and many of Eva and Franklin's courtship flashbacks are very short and in the form of montage. The nature of the plot still allows us to get to know Kevin and Eva quite well, but Book!Franklin, who is so desperately devoted to the American dream that he deludes himself into believing his child is normal, has most of his traits communicated through those letters. Without them, Movie!Franklin becomes just a nice, if somewhat dopey, everyman.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: How sympathetic Eva is supposed to be is never clear, but the more you re-read the book, the more she can come across as heartless and pretentious, unwilling to stoop to anything that she views as beneath her. While no one would argue that Eva deserves her fate – dealing with the fallout of Kevin's crimes after he's also taken away her husband and daughter – a second or third reading can make you ask yourself, just how much of Kevin's actions were a mutual game with Eva?
• Wangst: Though Eva has perfectly legitimate reasons to feel angsty after everything she goes through, she does occasionally have moments of this, such as interpreting her three-year-old son making a mess of his birthday cake as tearing its heart out.
• The Woobie: Celia, so very much. All she wants is to please everyone and she gets her pet mouse killed, blinded in one eye and then murdered by her own brother.

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