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Morvern Callar
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 18 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Liana Dognini
Lynne Ramsay
Alan Warner (novel)
Directed by: Lynne Ramsay
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 20, 2002
DVD: December 16, 2003
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: UK
Summary
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.
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...
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 >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Ramsay reaches out boldly with a film that is as unsettling as it is minimalist.
Read Full Review >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 >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.
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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >TV Guide Ken Fox
Ramsay's second feature is an extraordinary adaptation of fellow-Scot Alan Warner's acclaimed novel.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >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 >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
What gives the movie real flesh and fantasy is the actress playing this part, the incandescent Morton.
Read Full Review >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 >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 >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 >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
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.
