Setting

Time period

The film We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) doesn't explicitly specify the exact time setting or provide clear chronological markers. However, certain elements in the film offer contextual clues that help place the film in a vague time period. Most notably, technology such as the video game console Kevin and Franklin play on (00:36:25) or the landline phone Eva uses (01:16:16) and the absence of mobile phones suggests that the film takes place sometime in the 1990s.

The main timeline of the film takes place over a few months. Judging from the landscape and weather at the beginning of the film, it looks to be late summer or early autumn (00:07:10). Then, the film also shows Eva driving through the neighborhood on Halloween, while children are trick or treating (00:30:43) and she also goes to her office’s Christmas party (01:05:19) towards the end of the film. 

At the same time, the flashbacks that form the secondary timeline of the movie span multiple years of Eva’s life but focus primarily on the first sixteen years of Kevin’s life growing up. The film ends on the two-year anniversary of Kevin’s crime and his imprisonment, right before Kevin is about to turn eighteen and be transferred to an adult jail.

Physical setting

Like the time setting, the physical setting is also not explicitly specified but we can tell most of the action takes place in a small town in the United States. When Eva and Franklin meet, they ...