Morvern Callar

The reception that greeted Glaswegian director Lynne Ramsay’s debut feature Ratcatcher veered from the ecstatic to the orgasmic, with one particularly excitable critic hailing it as “the must-see British film of the last decade”. As such, her second feature Morvern Callar – based on Alan Warner’s 1995 novel – has lofty expectations to fulfil. And it does, just about. Never less than intriguing, Morvern is an emotionally aloof but visually impressive work, strikingly original if sparsely plotted, and possessing enough hypnotic dream-like power to excuse occasional lapses into self-indulgent pretension.

The skeletal plot concerns a dead-end supermarket worker Morvern (Samantha Morton) who arrives home from work on Christmas Eve to find her life brightened further still by the suicide of her boyfriend. The deceased, an aspiring novelist, has left his masterwork behind on the PC.

Morvern decides to pass off the work as her own, informs everyone that he’s left her, empties his bank account and moves to Spain with her best friend Lanna (McDermott), intent on starting a new life.

Morton is typically impressive in the central role, again carrying a practically wordless role with effortless ease after her portrayal of a mute in Woody Allen’s Sweet & Lowdown.

Best of all, the soundtrack frequently hits real heights, with Morvern listening to her dead boyfriend’s compliation tape to often highly moving effect, as on Lee Hazelwood’s dreamy ‘Some Velvet Morning’. Morvern Callar certainly isn’t for everyone, but more films should be this adventurous.