We need to talk about Kevin

Production and year: USA, UK 2011 Original title: We Need to Talk About Kevin Genre: Drama, Thriller Director: Lynne Ramsay Screenplay: Lynne Ramsay, Rory Kinnear Cast: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller Medical topic: antisocial personality disorder Description: I came across "We Need to Talk About Kevin" because I wanted to watch the film named the best movie of 2012 by Filmweb.pl. To my surprise, the film very emphatically shows the development of a dissocial personality from birth. Therefore, it’s worth taking a closer look at it. We get to know Kevin from the moment of his conception. His mother, Eva (Swinton), is a traveler and an acclaimed author. When she decides to become a mother, she cannot even imagine how it will disrupt her life, lead to the breakdown of her family, ostracism by her neighbors, and a massacre at the school Kevin will attend. The film addresses an important issue: Is a child’s mother always responsible for his upbringing, and does it depend mainly on her what kind of person the child will grow up to be? Despite completely downplaying the influence of the environment outside the immediate family on Kevin, the director does not give us a simple answer. Both parents make cardinal mistakes in his upbringing. The father (Reilly) always indulges his son; he sees no deviations from the norm in Kevin’s behavior. The mother never developed a maternal instinct toward Kevin. Most of her behavior is forced. Despite her numerous efforts, the viewer has little doubt that she would gladly shed this maternal responsibility. The situation is completely different in Eva’s relationship with Kevin’s younger sister. Is it simply because Kevin was, from birth, a child with antisocial personality disorder, and later developed psychopathic traits?