Directed by: Lynne Ramsay.
Written by: Liana Dognini & Lynne Ramsay based on a novel by Alan Warner.
Starring: Samantha Morton (Morvern Callar), Kathleen McDermott (Lanna).
Movern
Callar was critically acclaimed on the festival circuit in 2002, and during its
release the following year – and yet I think its reputation has grown even more
in the last decade or so – it’s even made the They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They
list of the top 250 acclaimed films of the 21st Century. That makes
sense, as Movern Callar is one of those movies that grows in your mind after
seeing it. I remember walking out of the film in 2003 confused and a little
frustrated by the film. Who was Movern Callar? Why does she never let the
audience into her as she does what she does in the film? And yet, the film haunted
me – so much so that even though I had not seen the film since until starting
this series, it remained remarkably clear in my mind. It is stunning film in a
lot of ways – not least because of Samantha Morton’s brilliant performance in
the title role. The film gets deeper the more I think about it – I doubt I’ll
go another decade before revisiting it again.
The
first scene of Movern Callar has her waking up, and finding her boyfriend dead
on the floor, his blood pooling, after a suicide. He leaves her a note on the
computer – telling her he loves her, but she couldn’t understand why he did
what he did. The note also includes instructions for submitting his just
completed novel. Movern ignores the body, and the note, for a while and heads
out into the night and rides the subway. Eventually, she’ll get together with
her best friend – Lanna (Kathleen McDermott) and go out clubbing, eventually
ending up at a party, and sex with some anonymous strangers, before Movern and
Lanna walk home the next morning – and Movern confesses that her boyfriend is
“gone”. She doesn’t say where or how – just that he’s gone. Eventually, she
will change the name on her boyfriend’s novel and submits it under her own
name. When she can no longer ignore the body on the floor, she takes a saw to
it – while listening to the mix tape her boyfriend left for her as a Christmas
present – and disposes of it. She uses the money in her boyfriend’s account
that he left for his funeral to pay for a holiday to Spain for her and Lanna –
which results in more clubbing, more partying, more anonymous sex – before the
pair head out into the middle of nowhere and get lost. The publisher calls and
offers Movern a generous deal for “her” novel.
That’s
the plot of the movie in a nutshell – although the movie doesn’t seem all that
interested in plot – certainly not in any sort of linear point a to point b
way. Based on that description, you may well think Movern is a sociopath –
someone who is unfeeling and doesn’t care for her boyfriend at all. That she is,
above all, a selfish monster. Yet, that’s not how the movie plays at all. Much
of this is due to Samantha Morton’s brilliant performance as Movern. Morton has
one of the more expressive faces in movies – it served her well as the mute
love interest in Woody Allen’s Sweet & Lowdown as well as one of the
floating psychics in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. Here you study her
face for some sort of insight into why she does what she does – but it never
really comes. Like Ramsay’s previous film, Ratcatcher, if you are expecting a
scene where the main character breaks down and finally explains her actions,
you’re going to be disappointed. No one ever finds out what Movern did – and
the film never explains why she did it. In his review, Roger Ebert speculates
that her motivations are based on class – the boyfriend is obviously fairly
well off given the apartment they share, and yet Movern still works at the
supermarket. The note he leaves her is rather condensing. In Ebert’s view, this
was a fairly new relationship, and Movern does what she does to take care of
herself. That’s as good of an explanation as any, but doesn’t fully explain
everything. There does seem to be an element of class to Movern – she and Lanna
seem used to having no money, and the trip to Spain floors Lanna with its extravagance
even though the resort the go to is kind a dump. If her boyfriend killed
himself, he doesn’t need the money he left behind – or the money his novel
would bring. But Movern does. Still, though, I do think there is something
deeper behind Movern’s motivations. Her slow break from Lanna – who is
seemingly content to continue to revel in their hedonist lifestyle forever,
whereas Movern seems to want to go and search for something “more” – starts
when Lanna confesses that she once slept with Movern’s boyfriend. Their last
scene together, where Movern tells Lanna she’s “going back” to Spain, and
invites Lanna along again to which Lanna replies that she’s “happy here” and
that Movern should be as well as stop looking for “something more” seals their breakup.
Movern is in some bizarre sort of mourning – one that she lets no one else in
on. Morton’s performance is mesmerizing simply because it never quite lets us
inside. Her face has a haunted look to it though, one that suggests deep pain
while at the same time appearing perfectly normal to someone not paying
attention. I’m not quite sure how Morton did this, but it is a brilliant piece
of screen acting.
The
film is a bold, stylistic step forward for Ramsay as well. She has always made
films from one characters point of view – from her shorts, to Ratcatcher and on
to We Need to Talk About Kevin – and here she does the same basic thing for
Movern, except her interior world remains closed off from us. A decade ago when
I saw the film I was confused and frustrated – and I expect many viewers still
would be. They want closure, they want an answer to all the questions Movern
Callar raises, as a movie, and as a character, and Ramsay’s film and Morton’s
performance don’t give us that. I found that frustrating 11 years ago, but find
it oddly exhilarating now. Any answers Ramsay could give would seem
disappointing compared to what we read into Movern as we watch the film. I
didn’t think that much of Movern Callar 11 years ago. I love it now.
Excellent review of Morvern Callar and an awesome blog!
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