The Cinematheque

“A modern-day fairytale infused with music, magic, and metamorphosis … Morvern Callar is both passionate and entertaining; perhaps the bravest, and certainly the coolest, film of the year.”

Linda Ruth Williams, Sight and Sound

An elusive young woman guards a dark secret in Lynne Ramsay’s richly enigmatic and engrossing second feature, an adaptation of fellow Scot Alan Warner’s debut novel. Samantha Morton, unsurprisingly excellent, is Morvern Callar, a grocery store clerk whose would-be novelist boyfriend kills himself on Christmas Eve. In lieu of informing authorities, Morvern chops him up, empties his bank account, and whisks away to Spain with her best mate (Kathleen McDermott). There, a strange odyssey of indulgence, liberation, and grief unfolds, set to songs (by Can, Aphex Twin, Stereolab, and more) from a mixtape left for Morvern by the deceased. The woozily rendered film owes much of its allure to the decision to bar access to Morvern’s psychology, leaving motivations eerily, unnervingly ambiguous. Dreamily shot by Alwin H. Küchler, who also photographed Ramsay’s first feature Ratcatcher, this singular, sensorial, at times surreal work cemented a maverick new voice in British cinema.

“A mesmeric, startling, and sometimes baffling movie … It undoubtedly announces Ramsay as one of the most distinctive talents in British cinema.”

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“A film that is as unsettling as it is minimalist … Morvern Callar confirms Lynne Ramsay as an important, original talent in international cinema.”

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times