CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

83 Alexandra
80 Band's Visit, The
76 Beauty in Trouble
47 Bella
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
59 Blind Mountain
55 Bra Boys
60 Brick Lane
70 Caramel
49 Children of Huang Shi, The
83 Chop Shop
83 Chris & Don. A Love Story
78 Counterfeiters, The
52 Diminished Capacity
64 Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
84 Edge of Heaven, The
52 Elsa & Fred
79 Encounters at the End of the World
62 Expired
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Flawless
86 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63 Foot Fist Way, The
60 Fugitive Pieces
45 Full Grown Men
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69 Go-Getter, The
74 Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
63 Gunnin for that #1 Spot
68 Heartbeat Detector
34 Holding Trevor
68 Honeydripper
55 Irina Palm
69 Jellyfish
60 Jihad for Love, A
68 Kabluey
62 Kiss the Bride
63 Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
82 Last Mistress, The
38 Life Before Her Eyes, The
70 Love Songs
64 Married Life
30 Meet Bill
33 Miss Conception
53 Mister Lonely
75 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
84 My Winnipeg
61 On the Rumba River
69 Operation Filmmaker
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
72 Priceless
51 Promotion, The
55 Quid Pro Quo
29 Red Roses and Petrol
79 Reprise
71 Roman de gare
56 Sangre de mi sangre
51 Savage Grace
76 Shotgun Stories
66 Son of Rambow
70 Standard Operating Procedure
62 Stuck
72 Surfwise
81 Tell No One
56 Then She Found Me
xx Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71 To the Limit
54 Tracey Fragments, The
70 Trumbo
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
56 Unknown Woman
86 Up the Yangtze
79 Visitor, The
62 Wackness, The
37 War, Inc.
64 Water Lilies
66 When Did You Last See Your Father?
55 Without the King
72 Woman on the Beach
64 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 



Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Morvern Callar
Cowboy Pictures

Morvern Callar reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 78 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
5.5 out of 10
based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Raife Patrick Burchell, Dan Cadan, Carolyn Calder, Jim Wilson, Dolly Wells, Ruby Milton, and Linda McGuire

An aimless supermarket clerk (Morton) in a small Scottish town gets a new lease on life upon discovering her boyfriend dead under their Christmas tree.


GENRE(S): Drama  
WRITTEN BY: Liana Dognini
Lynne Ramsay
Alan Warner (novel)
 
DIRECTED BY: Lynne Ramsay  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 16, 2003 
Video: December 16, 2003 
Theatrical: December 20, 2002 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: UK 

Best Actress (Morton) and Best Cinematographer, 2002 British Independent Film Awards

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
Washington Post Desson Thomson
As Morvern, Morton is disconcertingly enigmatic, often bordering on catatonic. But she carries the movie effortlessly. And even though we're on the outside looking in, she carries us along, too.
Read Full Review
90
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Ramsay reaches out boldly with a film that is as unsettling as it is minimalist.
Read Full Review
90
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
A work of astonishing delicacy and force, a tone poem about the Frankenstein jolts that all of us, at one time or another, have to live through.
Read Full Review
90
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
(Morton's) character here is emotionally mute -- though Morvern speaks, she can't or won't reveal what's in her heart -- and her performance is brilliant from start to finish.
88
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
I think the answer is right there in the film, but less visible to American viewers because we are less class-conscious than the filmmakers.
Read Full Review
88
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
A gossamer tale about a heavy subject -- a passive creature who slowly emerges as the active author of her own life.
Read Full Review
88
New York Post V.A. Musetto
Morton deserves an Oscar nomination, but she is unlikely to get one. The movie is too dark and out of the mainstream to impress the conservative fogies who vote for the prizes.
Read Full Review
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
There are two reasons Ramsay succeeds with a story that might at best be called morbid: She visually transforms the dreary expanse of dead-end distaste the characters inhabit into a poem of art, music and metaphor -- and she has the perfect actress to embody Morvern.
Read Full Review
80
The New York Times A.O. Scott
This minimalist film is slightly hobbled by its minimal plot; it's the crucial difference between a movie with moments of greatness and a great movie.
Read Full Review
80
LA Weekly Ella Taylor
A strange and beautiful film.
Read Full Review
80
TV Guide Ken Fox
Ramsay's second feature is an extraordinary adaptation of fellow-Scot Alan Warner's acclaimed novel.
Read Full Review
80
Dallas Observer Andy Klein
One of the glories of the film is that Ramsay keeps us rigorously to Morvern's point of view without ever being explicit about what's going on in her head.
Read Full Review
80
The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Morvern Callar not only attempts to reveal an interior life, usually the province of novels, but also focuses on the interior life of a woman who refuses to open up to anyone.
Read Full Review
78
Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Ramsay is experimental, unconventional, and forever reaching at the gorgeousness in grief and despair. Her film moves slow as molasses, slow as paint drying -– and all the better to see the colors and the complexities.
Read Full Review
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Morton acts up a storm, and Ramsay continues her rise as England's hottest young female filmmaker.
Read Full Review
75
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
In Morvern Callar, the subject matter may be morbid and unappealing, but the director handles it with a visual poetry and an eye for hidden beauty that marks a filmmaker of the first order.
Read Full Review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
With little dialogue to assist her -- just the strains of that wonderfully organic music -- she still manages to suggest the internal struggle, and to slowly reveal a fierce toughness that flies in the face of conventional morality.
Read Full Review
75
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
What gives the movie real flesh and fantasy is the actress playing this part, the incandescent Morton.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
It's a smartly surreal little movie, and again shows why, whenever there's a role that calls for an actress who can speak volumes without much dialogue (as in "Minority Report" and "Sweet and Lowdown"), the call goes out to Morton.
Read Full Review
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Strange, moody film.
Read Full Review
75
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Despite grim doings involving sexual hysteria and chopped-up body parts (don't ask), Ramsay and Morton fill this character study with poetic force and buoyant feeling.
Read Full Review
70
Village Voice J. Hoberman
More engrossing than convincing.
Read Full Review
67
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
A movie's refusal to judge bad behavior can be a subtle way of trumping the audience -- a passive-aggressive form of one-upmanship.
Read Full Review
30
Chicago Reader Meredith Brody
Fans of director Lynne Ramsay's first movie, the bleak “Ratcatcher,” won't be surprised that this little existential exercise makes “The Strangef” look like a funwagon.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Matthew Z. gave it a1:
There are hardly words to describe just how terribly awful this movie is. It's a pedantic wannabe French film with a Scottish accent. Save some time and watch a wigged out friend of yours smoke a cigarette -- that's about what this film adds up to. This will be the last time I ever trust the Cannes Film Festival.

Rory O. gave it a10:
I liked the sex bit.

Anne L. gave it a10:
It's a continually surprising film. The cinematography is exquisite, Samantha Morton acts out a brilliantly dull sadness, and the soundtrack gives it an indescribable power.

Mike P. gave it a 10:
This film brilliantly captured what its like to be young and impulsive.

J. L. gave it a 3:
No real narrative arc. This could have been a short. The conclusion is one which is far too predictable.

Sam M. gave it a 3:
Very slow.. Not much of a story.

Quigley Q. gave it a 10:
Since no one has mentioned it yet, I will cast my ten just for the music alone. A perfect affective accompaniment to her grieving and regenration. In particular, the static and still shots are so well composed and indicative of Morvern's aesthetic and personal relationship to the world.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: World News | Fantasy Football | Amy Winehouse | Baseball | E3 | Batman | Firefox 3 | iPhone 3G

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CNET Networks, Inc., a CBS Company. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use