Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf

The movie toggles between two periods-before and after a catastrophe-and, were it not for Swinton's magnetism, it would be unbearable. Instead, you'll want to stay for the wallop.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

As a portrait of a deteriorating state of mind, We Need to Talk About Kevin is a masterful film.

Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan

It's a domestic horror story that literally gets to us where we live, a disturbing tale told with uncompromising emotionality and great skill by filmmaker Lynne Ramsay.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

Watching it isn't easy, but it is definitely worth having waited for.

Variety by Leslie Felperin

An exquisitely realized adaptation of Lionel Shriver's bestselling novel. In a rigorously subtle performance as a woman coping with the horrific damage wrought by her psychopathic son, Tilda Swinton anchors the dialogue-light film with an expressiveness that matches her star turn in "I Am Love."

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

There are so many great things happening on almost every level of this movie, from Swinton's haunting, magnetic and tremendously vulnerable performance, which is absolutely free of condescension to the suburban American wife-ness of her character, to the many unsettling individual moments.

Time by Mary Pols

Ramsey's film has its own strengths. We Need To Talk About Kevin doesn't just bring you to the outskirts of a parent's worst nightmare; this fever dream of guilt and loss takes you straight inside.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Joe Williams

Refusing to hold our hands, director Lynne Ramsay ("Morvern Callar") pushes far beyond the boundaries of topical drama into the realm of the surreal.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Acting doesn't get much better than the subtly brilliant display put on by Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

A meditation on the pain suffered by a mother when her child turns out to be a monster, We Need to Talk about Kevin is the perfect tonic for holiday cheer.

Empire

A triumph for Ramsay anchored by terrific performances. Guaranteed to haunt you for days, and possibly prompt a rethink on your position on parenthood.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

This is, in a way, a real horror film about everyday things and a disconnected family.

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

The movie is creepy, but it has no texture or depth. It's like "The Omen" directed by Miranda July.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey

Ezra Miller's sneering, absurdly precocious evil-child performance makes him just another bad-seed horror villain.

Village Voice

By treating Kevin's evil as a mystery to be solved, Ramsay only succeeds in making what was once allusive banal.

Slant Magazine by Ed Gonzalez

The purpose of Lynne Ramsay's hodgepodge approach is to distract us from the flimsiness of a story that suggests a snide art-house take on "The Omen."

Observer by Rex Reed

This is the most unwatchable horror movie masquerading as social comment I have seen this year.