Directed by Lynne Ramsay (U.K.)
Scottish director Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) has adapted Lionel Shriver's bestseller as a stylish shocker – filled with great splashes of red – about a school shooting, but it's more horror movie than insightful psychological study. Told in a jigsaw puzzle of flashbacks, the story follows Eva (Tilda Swinton) as the traumatized mother of a psychopath, an emotionally ungiving Manhattan thoroughbred married to a regular guy (John C. Reilly). Eva's life may have an arc worthy of Greek tragedy, but the psychological credibility is undermined by the portrait of Kevin. Ezra Miller's sneering, absurdly precocious evil-child performance makes him just another bad-seed horror villain.
Sept. 9, 8 p.m., Winter Garden; Sept. 11, 9:15 a.m., Lightbox 2