Morvern Callar
by Lynne Ramsay
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dolly Wells, Kathleen McDermott, Linda McGuire, Ruby Milton, Samantha MortonDirector: Lynne Ramsay
Writer: Lynne Ramsay
Producer: Andras Hamori
Producer: Barbara McKissack
Producer: Charles Pattinson
Producer: David M. Thompson
Writer: Alan Warner
Writer: Liana Dognini
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-10-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Palm Pictures / Umvd
Movie Reviews of Morvern Callar
Movie Review: Morvern is a hero most Americans won't appreciate--no spoilers review
Summary: 4 Stars
I don't get the negative reviews for "Morvern Callar." I can understand why many won't like this film--but I can't understand why they watched it. You can tell what kind of film it is right off the bat. Don't their DVD players have OFF switches?
Here's who should watch it:
(1) people who appreciate great acting--Samantha Morton is amazing;
(2) people who realize that the choices available to middle class, college educated Americans are not the choices available to lower working class Scots living in a stratified society where your accent is your destiny. Think "My Fair Lady" except Eliza Doolittle never met Professor 'iggins and had to make her way on her own, only set in the 1990s, only the UK hasn't changed that much in this regard;
(3) people who don't require Hollywood production values, special effects sequences, and artificially flavored happy endings;
(4) people who are prepared to admire Morvern for using everything at her disposal to cope with the rotten hand life dealt her.
I'd be honored to know someone like Morvern, inarticulate working-class bloke that she is. Her educated artistic boyfriend saw something in her that isn't obvious at the beginning--except that she's reasonably attractive. What's inside her is slowly revealed through the course of the movie, which will only seem aimless to those who want to be lead by the hand, like Hollywood is only too happy to do.
My spouse thoroughly disapproved of this movie and Morvern's life choices, and I haven't been able to change her mind. So I understand how appalled some will be at this movie, even some who have been exposed to hundreds of interesting films from all over the world. But though Morvern's no saint and doesn't pretend to be, I approve of her actions in the context in which they occur.
My own father only had a 7th grade education, so perhaps I'm in a better position to understand the working poor. There's so much we take for granted.
For me the high point of the film is a scene in which she's negotiating with two publisher's representatives. She's waaay over her head and bloody well knows it, but she's also plucky and resourceful, and watching her navigate these waters, continually at the brink of disaster, is both wonderful to watch and a wonder of magnificent, mostly wordless acting on Samantha Morton's part. This is a scene I'd show to acting classes.
I'd also use this if I were trying to teach people what "middle class" and "lower class" mean existentially.
Lastly, I know of no other film like this. It doesn't remind me of anything else except perhaps Kurosawa's version of "The lower depths." But that's a stretch.
See "Morvern Callar" if you're honestly prepared to visit the life of someone who absolutely is not from your world.
Summary of Morvern Callar
Eerie, morbid, yet somehow life-affirming, Morvern Callar stars the superb Samantha Morton (Sweet and Lowdown, Minority Report) as the title character, a young Scottish woman whose boyfriend has just killed himself, leaving behind a cassette of assorted songs and an unpublished novel. Instead of reporting his death, Morvern puts her name on his novel before sending it off to a publisher, then uses the dead man's bank card to pay for a trip to Spain with her friend Lana (Kathleen McDermott), where she tries to lose herself in sensation and chaos. The events of Morvern Callar suggest a story, but director Lynn Ramsay (Ratcatcher) focuses on moments of ambiguity and ambivalence in between the dramatic action--and when Morvern does take decisive action, her choices are unnerving. The movie's striking images and rich use of color vividly capture a dislocated state of mind, when life has come unmoored from meaning. --Bret FetzerArt House & International DVD Video
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