Cannes 2011: We Need To Talk About Kevin first reaction

Almost 10 years after her last film Morvern Callar , Brit-director Lynn Ramsay has made a gut-punching comeback with We Need To Talk About Kevin .

Skipping back and forth in time, the jigsaw narrative pieces together the Oedipally complex relationship between mother and son.

Though the film doesn't filter the book's first-person, letter-writing device into a voice-over, it's still intensely locked into Eva's POV.

Similar to Ramsey's earlier work (including 1999 debut Ratcatcher ), this is a highly expressionistic piece that makes striking use of the colour red, as well as Jonny Greenwood's score, which evokes the dread-soaked droning of his There Will Be Blood soundtrack.

That's not the only connection between the two films - this too is a horror film at heart, with Ezra an unforgettable monster (though the junior thesps playing the younger Kevin match his screen-searing stare).

If at times Ramsay's directorial control is so tight the film risks becoming mannered, the tension is perpetually poised on a knife's edge.

However, as the Scottish filmmaker pointed out, "There's no violence in this movie... you only see its aftermath. People think it's a lot more violent than it is."

She also pointed up that the film offers a timely metaphor: "If you turn a blind eye, you're going to create monsters. It's happening all over the world."

Swinton, though, suggested that the film is not "social commentary", adding, "This is a film about feelings, not facts. It's a bloody business being a parent, and an even bloodier one being a child!"