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Movies / On DVD / Morvern Callar
Morvern Callar

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Morvern Callar (2002)

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Reviews Counted:76

Fresh:64

Rotten:12

Average Rating:7.1/10

Consensus: Morton quietly makes this quirky, enigmatic mood piece a compelling watch.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Dec 20, 2002 Limited

Synopsis: The role of the aimless young rebel hiding behind an emotional wall and steely eyes has been monopolized by men in the movies since James Dean. Samantha Morton, one of her generation's most gifted... The role of the aimless young rebel hiding behind an emotional wall and steely eyes has been monopolized by men in the movies since James Dean. Samantha Morton, one of her generation's most gifted actors, makes the most of her opportunity to embody such a figure in her role as the title character of MORVERN CALLAR. Momentarily frozen by the suicide of her boyfriend, Morvern mines two words from his brief suicide note: be brave. Finally removing his body from the apartment floor, she buries her boyfriend, pocketing the funeral money he left. She also courts publishers, claiming authorship of the novel he left behind as his legacy. Her new financial freedom and sense of mortality brings Morvern, joined by her coworker Lana (Kathleen McDermott), out of her bleak surroundings to a Spanish resort where the two are surrounded by fellow clubbers. Lynne Ramsay (RATCATCHER) evokes emotion through landscape as Morvern and Lana flee the dreary Scottish winter for a Spanish coastal town bathed in sunlight. Working from Alan Warner's novel, Ramsay uses powerful imagery and a soundtrack vacillating between contemplative silence, abrasive sound effects, and hip music to create a purely cinematic work, avoiding the trappings of an adaptation. [More]

Starring: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Linda McGuire, Duncan McHardy

Starring: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Linda McGuire, Duncan McHardy, Dolly Wells, Jim Wilson

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Director: Lynne Ramsay
Screenwriter: Lynne Ramsay, Liana Dognini
Producer: George Faber, Charles Pattinson, Robyn Slovo
Studio: Cowboy Pictures

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Nov 30, 1999

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Morvern Callar

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/19/03
Empire Magazine

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat

It's got mood in spades.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
12/13/02
E! Online

Morton uses her face and her body language to bring us Morvern's soul, even though the character is almost completely deadpan.

Full Review Source: Dallas Observer | comment Comment
04/11/03
Andy Klein
Andy Klein
Dallas Observer

That old adage about women being unknowable gets an exhilarating new interpretation in Morvern Callar.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
12/20/02
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Modamag.com | comment Comment
03/27/03
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
Modamag.com

Samantha Morton plays Morvern with the impressive lack of self-consciousness that has become her trademark.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
12/25/02
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

Exceptionally moving.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
03/20/03
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Ramsay is showing us one very particular type of person, a live-for-the-moment young woman who is fascinated by ugliness and pain and who -- like the poet, Terence -- believes nothing human is alien to her.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
06/06/03
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

Ramsay succeeds primarily with her typical blend of unsettling atmospherics, delivering a series of abrasive, stylized sequences that burn themselves upon the viewer's memory.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
10/20/02
Chris Wiegand
Chris Wiegand
Boxoffice Magazine

Recalls quiet freak-outs like L'Avventura and Repulsion.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
12/14/02
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

Few films this year have been as resolute in their emotional nakedness.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
12/07/02
Chuck Rudolph
Chuck Rudolph
Slant Magazine

A film about youthful confusion made without a moment of artistic immaturity or indecision.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
06/05/03
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune

An amazing audio-visual experience.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/08/02
Darrin Keene
Darrin Keene
Film Threat

Morvern rocks.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
12/16/02
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

As Morvern, [Morton is] disconcertingly enigmatic, often bordering on catatonic. But she carries the movie effortlessly.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
02/21/03
Desson Thomson
Desson Thomson
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A mesmerizing conundrum of a suspended life in perpetual motion.

Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | comment Comment
07/16/03
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Eleanor Ringel Gillespie
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Strange and beautiful film.

Full Review Source: L.A. Weekly | comment Comment
12/19/02
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
L.A. Weekly

The wonderfully lush Morvern Callar is pure punk existentialism, and Ms. Ramsay and her co-writer, Liana Dognini, have dramatized the Alan Warner novel, which itself felt like an answer to Irvine Welsh's book Trainspotting.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
12/20/02
Elvis Mitchell
Elvis Mitchell
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating)
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