This is a weird fuckin’ movie. I’m not sure what to make of it. The only way it works in a ‘realistic’ way is if its entirely from the subjective experience of Swinton’s mother character. I could see it as a first-person memory of all these experiences, with all of the other characters exaggerated from the emotional perspective of Swinton. Reiley being overly ‘aw shucks gee golly,’ Kevin being almost comedically evil for no real apparent reason, even the whole ’I’m a math whiz, now I’m shitting my pants, now I’m explaining what fucking is’ (ie…how old is this kid?) seems to only work as a false memory piece of different years of Kevin’s development mashed together in Swinton’s mind.

[SPOILER] Not sure what the take away of the ending is, even if I saw the death-by-archery thing early on (Chekhov’s bow?) or why he went after his sis and dad. It reminds me of Shame a bit in the sense of these highly stylized directors taking on big issues (sex addiction! school shootings!) but ultimately at the end of the film, you walk away with a bit of a shrug.

Also: what is up with Kevin’s looks? He looks completely different from Swinton and Reilly and seems to be part Asian. Whaaa?