Morvern Callar

Star Review

The suicide note at the start of the film reads "Be brave". Her boyfiend lying dead on the kitchen floor, Morvern (Samantha Morton), goes clubbing.

The event is a numbing catylyst for her liberation. Emptying the money from his bank account and appropriating his recently completed novel, (changing the author's name to hers), she escapes her small town existence via a flight to Spain accompanied by her best friend Lanna.

Adapted from the novel by Alan Warner, director Lynne Ramsay's second feature, after the acclaimed Ratcatcher, is a beautiful, artistic achievement and a lyrical contemplation on friendship, alienation and freedom. Ramsay has the courage and vision as a director to give time and space to each moment, and importantly, her heroine, creating a thoughtful and effortless poetic rhythm. Moments of prolonged silence in the sensual opening suicide scene counted by the slow pulse of Christmas tree lights are in stark contrast with the house music of strobe-filled nightclubs. Her confident visual language mixes images of nature, tradition and ritual with the raucousness of house parties and drug-fuelled hedonism. As Morvern, Samantha Morton inhabits all of these landscapes with a quiet ethereal quality, her eyes able to subtly convey loss and confusion, and then with a smirk and a mischievous smile all the eccentricity and joy of liberation. Her performance, pivotal to the success of the film, again proves her to be one of the most enigmatic and talented actresses in cinema today.



Both funny and tender, her relationship with Lanna is punctuated with giggling humour and illustrates the confusing moment of distinction between two childhood friends growing apart. The mix tape left by her dead boyfiend, the integral soundtrack to her journey, reveals what could have been construed as an act of cold amoral opportunism to be an extended romantic farewell.

Steve Turner on 30th June 2003

View all 30 of Steve Turner’s reviews

[ Show Film Description ]

Film Description

Morvern Callar is an endearingly matter-of-fact supermarket worker from a small port in the West of Scotland. She's got a dead boyfriend on the kitchen floor, and his unpublished novel on his computer. That's where it starts. There's a good rhythm to the film, and it's pointed up by surreal touches throughout. Winner of numerous international awards from the director of 'Ratcatcher'.

[ Show Star Review ]

Film Details

Cast

Samantha Morton

Technical Details