Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that We Need to Talk About Kevin is a bleak drama that centers on a disturbed teen who commits a heinous act. The film's focus is on his mother and how she deals with the aftermath; it also portrays the tense atmosphere in their home as her son grows from a toddler to a high schooler, getting progressively more hostile. There's some swearing (including "f--k" and "s--t") and a few brief sex scenes (plus simulated masturbation), as well as several moments of intense violence, some of which involve a child and others of which include some blood. Most of the actual violence is off-screen, but these scenes are still quite intense, and the movie has a consistently creepy, gloomy atmosphere.
Sexual
Content
A few scenes of a couple having simulated sex, with brief partial nudity. A teenage boy is shown from the chest up as he masturbates.
Violence
The film has more foreboding than actual on-screen violence, yet the atmosphere is so creepy and gloomy that the anticipation might be worse than in other films where viewers actually get to see comparable acts. A woman slaps another woman out of rage, and a frustrated mother slaps a disobedient toddler. She later throws the child across the room, breaking his arm. A young girl loses an eye in an off-screen accident, and a beloved pet guinea pig is dispatched in an unpleasant manner. (Again, it's off-screen but the oppressive atmosphere is still disturbing.) The disturbed child taunts his mother using harsh language and seems to lack all empathy. The film's culmination is a horrific school attack in which bloody teens are shown being wheeled out on stretchers.
Language
Frequent use of strong language includes "f--k," "s--t," "bitch," "ass," and more.
Social
Behavior
There's little, if anything, that's positive in this bleak film about a family in which a deeply disturbed teen drives everyone around him to despair. Nobody is happy, nobody comes off well, and there's certainly not a happy ending.
Consumerism
Not applicable
Drugs / Tobacco /
Alcohol
A woman drinks plenty of red wine. Later, after a terrible tragedy, she increases her intake significantly, and there are plenty of corks and empty bottles littering her home, along with prescription pills.
