Morvern Callar (2002)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Morvern Callar (2002) – L. Ramsay

Lynne Ramsay’s second feature (after Ratcatcher) stars Samantha Morton as a young woman (Morvern Callar) whose life is disrupted by the suicide of her boyfriend.  She’s not particularly eloquent and she doesn’t share her thoughts or feelings with others – she just soldiers on, determined to enjoy herself (or so it seems).  This involves pubs, clubs, and parties and a trip to Spain with her best friend Lanna (Kathleen McDermott), with a farewell mixtape from her partner on the soundtrack (Can, Stereolab, Broadcast, Lee Hazelwood, etc.).  At times things feel a bit druggy.  I suppose some suspense is built because a) she doesn’t tell anyone about the suicide and sort of covers it up; and b) she submits a novel that she didn’t write to a publisher. (Is this a betrayal of the boyfriend who betrayed her?).  But suspense is probably besides the point because actually this is one of those new minimalist films (e.g., Kelly Reichardt, Harmony Korine, Jim Jarmusch) that observes its characters but doesn’t care too much about plot. It looks and sounds great though, if you get on its emotional wavelength (which could be hard given Morvern’s reticence).  I am not sure it all adds up to much (other than an opaque character study) but I’m also not sure that that matters. There are other pleasures here.