When a teenager commits an atrocity, questions always arise about what went wrong. With 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, we get a drama that confronts this subject matter.

Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton) deals with an unspecified trauma. Though the nature of this issue remains unrevealed initially, we see that her neighbors view her as a pariah.

While we explore Eva’s current status, we also relive her past. This leads us to see the life of her troubled son Kevin from birth to teens (Ezra Miller), as we learn of his role in the family’s problems.

Promotional materials for Talk make it clear where the story will go, and the movie offers strong hints early, so we don’t get a true “revelation” at any point. Still, to avoid spoilers, I’ll leave these topics untouched.

Talk really attempts to examine what leads to violent events more than anything, though I can’t say it does so with much real introspection. We approach the material mainly from Eva’s perspective, and that doesn’t work especially well.

To some degree, this POV allows the movie to seem subjective, as we wonder whether or not Kevin really offers an enfant terrible as depicted or if she sees him as more awful than he is. A writer famous for travel-related works and a nomad at heart, we see Eva resists domesticity and appears decidedly ambivalent about motherhood.

As such, the movie wants us to think that perhaps Kevin is a “normal kid” but Eva’s perceptions distort his actions. However, Talk doesn’t portray this well, and Kevin displays more than enough objectively horrifying behavior that it becomes tough to see him as even vaguely benign.

This becomes an intriguing way to tell the story, but Talk overdoes Kevin’s negativity to make him seem monstrous from the start. Again, because we view this from Eva’s POV, there remains potential question about the accuracy of what we watch, but Talk doesn’t convey this potential distortion well.

Face it: film tends to be a fairly literal medium. While some flicks can pull off skewed perspectives, as viewers, we usually take what we see as objective reality, not subjective interpretation.

As a result, Talk can feel heavy-handed and perplexing, mainly because Kevin acts out enough that it makes little sense he receives apparently little to no interventions along the way, especially given the family’s well-off status. There’s simply no way a kid like Kevin could behave in the manner depicted without actions from the school.

Even if Kevin’s teachers and administrators ignored all the red flags – which seems more and more unlikely in the post-Columbine era where kids get disciplined for using their fingers as “guns” – Eva easily could’ve and would’ve gotten outside professionals involved. The family clearly boasts the wherewithal to take Kevin to a slew of psychological/behavioral professionals, but apparently this doesn’t occur.

Talk just lacks subtlety period. The film opens with aggressive echoes of “fight” over a football game, and the bright red splat from a tomato battle offer an obvious hint at blood.

Other elements provide heavy-handed foreshadowing that doesn’t well, too. When we see how Kevin becomes an avid archer, we know this will lead someplace unfortunate.

I applaud the fact Talk attempts to take on a difficult topic, at least. When kids “go bad”, questions always arise related to how that occurred, so I appreciate the film’s ambitions as it tries to dig into this area.

Unfortunately, Talk becomes so one-sided that it lacks the impressionism and subjectivity it believes it delivers. This feels more like a horror movie ala The Omen than a serious drama about childhood trauma.

We Need to Talk About Kevin appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not without some anomalies, this became a largely positive presentation.

Overall sharpness worked fine, though some oddly soft moments materialized with a bit of stylized imagery. Nonetheless, most of the film exhibited appealing accuracy and delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws failed to mar the presentation.

Colors tended toward a dull green or amber, with bright red used for effect at times. The disc replicated these as intended.

Blacks felt dark and deep, while shadows displayed appropriate clarity. Outside of some occasional softness, the movie came with good picture quality.

In terms of the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, it largely stayed with dialogue, music and atmosphere. However, it managed to open up on occasion.

The film’s more vivid moments related to violence. Some of Eva’s impressions of events also created a “trippy” feel that brought good use of the various channels and formed a lively impression.

Audio quality satisfied, with speech that seemed natural and concise. Music appeared full and rich.

Effects demonstrated appealing range and accuracy, with solid low-end when necessary. This became a more than serviceable track for a character flick.

A few extras appear here, and Behind the Scenes runs 27 minutes, five seconds. It provides notes with director Lynne Ramsay, producers Robert Salerno and Luc Roeg, director of photography Seamus McGarvey, production designer Judy Becker, and actors John C. Reilly, Tilda Swinton, and Ezra Miller.

“Scenes” covers the source and its adaptation, story/characters, cast and performances, Ramsay’s approach to the material, photography and set/visual design, and the film’s reception. We get a fairly introspective view of the production here.

Extra Footage from “La Tomatina” Tomato Festival spans four minutes, 15 seconds. This extends a scene from early in the film. It seems less than compelling, honestly. <|P> Next comes In Conversation with Tilda Swinton, a 17-minute, 52-second stage chat from the 2011 Telluride Film Festival. Here the actor discusses aspects of her personal life and her career. We learn nothing about Talk but Swinton brings a few decent notes.

An Interview with Author Lionel Shriver goes for three minutes, 58 seconds. Shot at the 2011 BFI London Film Festival, the writer covers the novel, its adaptation and some thoughts about the film. We get some useful thoughts but the chat doesn’t last long enough to tell us much.

In addition to the film’s trailer, Oscilloscope Releases includes ads for Kisses, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Bellflower, and Rebirth.

At times, We Need to Talk About Kevin threatens to become a compelling look at the nature of ‘bad kids’. However, the end result feels superficial and oddly off-kilter. The Blu-ray brings generally good picture and audio along with a decent mix of bonus materials. Talk occasionally succeeds but lacks consistency.