FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Morvern Callar [DVD] [2002]

Morvern Callar [DVD] [2002]
enlarge	Director: Lynne Ramsay Jr. Actors: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott, Linda McGuire, Duncan McHardy, Dolly Wells Studio: Momentum Pictures Category: DVD List Price: ~~£19.99~~ Buy New: £3.48 as of 22/11/2009 04:19 GMT details You Save: £16.51 (83%) New (15) Used (6) from £3.21 Seller: selectcheaper Rating: 7 reviews Sales Rank: 10274 Format: PAL, Anamorphic, Colour, Surround Sound, Dolby Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 93 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1 Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 Model: MP236V EAN: 5060049140360 ASIN: B00009KHUU Theatrical Release Date: 2002 Release Date: July 21, 2003 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review Eerie, morbid, yet somehow life-affirming, IMorvern Callar/I stars the superb Samantha Morton (ISweet and Lowdown/I, IMinority Report/I) as the title character, a young Scottish woman whose boyfriend has just killed himself, leaving behind a cassette of assorted songs and an unpublished novel. Instead of reporting his death, Morvern puts her name on his novel before sending it off to a publisher, then uses the dead man's bank card to pay for a trip to Spain with her friend Lana (Kathleen McDermott), where she tries to lose herself in sensation and chaos. The events of IMorvern Callar/I suggest a story, but director Lynn Ramsay (IRatcatcher/I) focuses on moments of ambiguity and ambivalence between the sequences of dramatic action--and when Morvern does take decisive action, her choices are unnerving. The movie's striking images and rich use of colour vividly capture a dislocated state of mind, when life has come unmoored from meaning. I--Bret Fetzer/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 1 2 Next » fabulously beautiful January 5, 2005 6 out of 9 found this review helpful Please don't take any notice of the synopsis above. It makes 'Morven Callar' sound like a 'Thelma Louise' type women vs men flick. It is infact a beautiful film about finding yourself, grief, friendship and submerging yourself completely in someone's love. Despite her boyfriend's suicide she emerges at the end excited by the opportunities life can throw at you and takes her boyfriend along with her at every step.pTrue, it is slowly paced, and at times I find the imagery a little self-indulgent. But it is beautifully shot throughout, contains some amazing scenery and provides some fabulously realistic party scenes. Plus the soundtrack is amazing. So sit back and relax and go with it. pIt is thoroughly uplifting and inspiring by the end. Plus Morven is a completely likeable character in a non-sickly or manipulative way. pI urge you to see this film. Stunning May 24, 2003 Joseph Cheverie (San Diego, CA USA) 5 out of 8 found this review helpful Some may criticize this movie for being unfocused, or not having much of a plot, but if they do they are making a greivous error. Morvern Callar is not only beautifully-and poignantly-shot, but Samantha Morton pulls off a fantastic acting job. Sadly, Morvern got very little viewing time in the Boston area, I can only hope it might get re-released in the States. I have not had the chance to view Ratcatcher yet, but based on Morvern Callar, Lynne Ramsay will be putting out thoughtful, intelligent movies for a long, long time. I hope. ;) Beautifully morbid January 30, 2005 E. Maddock (UK) 9 out of 12 found this review helpful Warning: 'mini'-spoiler present!pI'll try to keep this brief as I think this is one of those films which benefits from being viewed without reading any hype about it beforehand. Also, it did actually get released quite a while ago, however, I'm aware of the criticisms it received due to its less than electric pace and disturbing plot, and feel so incensed by people having dismissed the film that I feel I have to stick up for this little treasure!pIt really is an excellent, beautiful and subtle film by the fantastic Lynne Ramsay who concentrates more on the colour and beauty of the film rather than the plot. Morvern Callar is filled with shot after shot of morbid, depressing yet mesmerising photography. Her use of startling colour and tones of grey guide us through the film allowing the narrative to just fall into place whilst we are admire the cinematography.pThe film was not well received by some audiences (even though praised by critics) due to the subtlety (some would say boring-ness and lack of an obvious 'story'), and a lack of understanding about the things Morvern gets up to in the film. But it was never about being a typical drug-orientated free-love hippie movie. Morvern Callar's boyfriend commits suicide. She does not know what to do. Thus the chain of events which follow this incomprehensible traumatic event. pRamsay's attention to detail focus on this feeling of being lost and going into social decline. It's not 'too deep' and for the 'elite' (webjester, Maryland, IMDb.com, a typical less than impressed viewer), and yes, it is not usually the case that girlfriends cut up the body of their recently deceased partners- but that is not what the film is about. brIt's not a 'fun' film. And it's quite likely you wouldn't want to watch this more than a few times, but only because it is so powerfully bleak and discomforting. It is certainly not predictable, which makes it more interesting than your typical film. You never know how Morvern is going to react simply because she is not the usual likeable protagonist of the film; she is shown to be insensitive, emotionless, and oblivious and numb to all around her. Ramsay does not try to get the audience to sympathise with Morvern. It is refreshing to watch a protagonist you feel contempt and yet pity for. It is also equally (if not more) refreshing to watch a film about the cold-heartedness and basic oddness of society. Lovely. Cool soundtrack June 23, 2005 4 out of 13 found this review helpful The movie is a quite good story of two scottish girls on an adventure. I questioned the morals of the lead character, though I understood her motives due to the position she had been put in by her boyfriends suicide.pThe film itself is worth 3 stars but I have given it four stars because of the ultra cool soundtrack and the clever way it is incorporated into the film. The soundtrack features two classic tracks by the Kraut rock group Can and also class electronica such as The Aphex Twin. Morvern remains cryptic, stranded emotionally on her own island December 28, 2007 cathy earnshaw (Berlin, Germany) 1 out of 4 found this review helpful The positive reviews here surprise me - there are alot of people vigorously complaining about this film on message boards elsewhere, saying that it is plotless, lacking in dialogue and an utter waste of time. It is not as bad as all that and Lynne Ramsay's film, based on the novel Morvern Callar (1999) by Alan Warner, clearly does have a plot: our anti-heroine caresses the body of her boyfriend, who we slowly realise is lying dead - his wrists slit - under the blinking neon lights of the Christmas tree. Left with a considerable amount of money and a finished novel which her boyfriend has left on a disc, Morvern (Samantha Morton) is faced with terrible grief, but also with a possibility to break out of her mundane, stultifying life and experience something new. She embarks on a personal journey, in the course of which she pushes back her boundaries and gradually becomes an active agent in her own life. Morvern fills her psyche with loud music and pills, engages in casual sex and sets off with a friend on an impromptu holiday to southern Spain (having sold her boyfriend's novel to publishers under her own name for a tidy sum). br / br /Samantha Morton plays Morvern's wounded introspection and emotional vacancy brilliantly: she seems to intuitively understand her. And newcomer Kathleen McDermott - who was working as a trainee hairdresser in Glasgow's Argyle Street when approached by casting director Des Hamilton - is stunningly convincing as Morvern's friend, the bubbly and game-for-a-laugh Lanna. The difficulty for viewers is, I think, that Morvern is for the most part emotionally mute and almost autistic (a characteristic which contrasts with her boyfriend's literacy and creative output): we drift into a sensory ride through a club landscape with its throbbing lights and across the wild Spanish countryside, but are not allowed much access into Morvern's disturbed psyche or emotional impoverishment. Her blank, moon-like face shuts us out; with her headphones on for much of it, Morvern is cocooned in her own reality, in which trauma and pain are not expressed, but doggedly contained in the self. For me, this makes for a film about searching - blindly - for an answer, for a greater sense of identity, for agency. As Morvern drags her bag and battered case amongst the cacti and dusty roads of Spain, I was reminded of that Sylvia Plath line that seems written for her: "There is no terminus, only suitcases". br / br /There are other problems, too. The two publishers who spontaneously fly out to Spain to meet Morvern are too clichéd, too much like cardboard cut-outs. It also seems implausible that they would participate in her holiday activities and pay her £100,000 in one fat cheque, without any talk of re-writes or publicity meetings, etc. Moreover, Morvern's burial of her boyfriend's body (which she has just dismembered, with her trusty headphones on, in the bath) using only a small, flat-bladed garden tool is distractingly odd. Samantha Morton did not have time to work up a Scottish accent, too, so - in contrast to the novel - she has a Nottingham accent and is not originally from the area. br / br /Ramsay has said that she didn't intend her as a completely realistic character, saying that she saw the story as "a bit of a black fairytale": "The way she saw the world, how she didn't take the road she was meant to - she's kind of a revolutionary to me". It doesn't quite work in my opinion, but it's worth seeing nonetheless for the two main performances and for the unusual, catatonic enigma that is Morvern Callar. br / br /Recommended: Sweet and Lowdown, Jesus's Son, Control (in all three of which Samantha Morton stars) Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 1 2 Next »

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