“WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN”

★★★★ (out of four)

The film is essentially an examination of pain (focusing not on the processes of healing or the pursuit of closure or true catharsis, but rather the fruitless search for “meaning” in senseless human tragedy), and as such could have easily fallen into the usual trappings that often render such projects more self-important than socially relevant. But Ramsay strikes the perfect tone throughout the film, alternating between brief flashback scenes depicting the nightmarish relationship between mother and son (starting at birth), and “present day” sequences that show us the mother’s vain attempts to reclaim some sense of normalcy following the high school massacre for which her son was responsible. 

“TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY”

★★

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is based on the classic novel of the same name by John le Carre, which is widely considered to be the greatest spy story ever told. It is the sophomore directorial effort of Tomas Alfredson, who gave us the beautifully realized “Let the Right One In” just a few years ago. It boasts one of the most impressive casts of any movie last year, including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, Toby Jones and Tom Hardy. And it’s a gorgeous film visually, perfectly capturing the look, feel and all-encompassing paranoia of the Cold War at its apex.

“THE DESCENDANTS”

★★★★

The film’s premise is intriguing, and rife with potential to explore moral complexities. George Clooney stars as Matt King, a workaholic attorney and father of two girls, whose wife is injured in a boat race and rendered comatose. As Mike, a self-professed “backup parent,” is faced with the prospect of caring for his daughters alone, he is further disturbed by the revelation that his wife had been carrying on an affair in the months before her accident. Burdened by this knowledge, he sets out along with his oldest daughter (Shailene Woodley) and her stoner boyfriend (Nick Krause) to find and confront the man who was sleeping with his wife. In the midst of all this drama is a subplot involving Matt’s control over a pending land sale (he’s a direct descendant of King Kamehameha, and holds sway over the family trust that includes 25,000 acres of pristine Hawaiian land), and its troubling connections to the central conflict.