Critique: Film> Reviews.

Morvern Callar is hardly a conventional name for a character, but the film hardly has a conventional plot, either. Based on the novel by Alan Warner, the story revolves around the life of a young woman living in Oban, Scotland, who wakes up near Christmas to find her Writer-boyfriend lying dead on the living room floor. A suicide note has been left on the computer screen ("Don't try to understand"), along with a manuscript and a list of company addresses that he wants Morvern to post it to for publishing. The protagonist never really does much from thereon and the plot really ends up concluding nothing, but the character's emotional privacy makes for some fascinating viewing.

Morvern Callar is quite simply a character study. The story does not attempt to solve the dilemma of losing a loved one, but instead tracks the individual moments of Morvern (Samantha Morton) as she drifts from day-to-day with her various feelings. In one scene, her life is seemingly on hold as she lays there in silence, with her face expressionless, on the floor next to her boyfriend's corpse (refusing to move it). To some people, this may sound boring, but the character somehow manages to convey such emotion via these private moments that I was drawn into her world. I wanted to know more.

After we see Morvern working a thankless job at the local supermarket, she eventually decides to chop up the body and bury it in the moors. She then deletes her boyfriend's name on the manuscript, replaces it with her own, and then sends it off to the publishers. Finally, using the money left in her account by her dead lover, she decides to go on a trip to Spain with her friend Lanna (Kathleen McDermott). We start to wonder if this girl is crazy.

Morvern is a character that appears isolated, and this is reflected in the grey tones of the Glaswegian environment. There are hints that she wants to break into the "real world" when we notice the rhythmic flickering of the lights on the Christmas tree upon her boyfriend's corpse in the living room. But when she does eventually make it to the sunshine of Spain, she feels equally as lost: Her best friend is out every night partying, taking drugs and getting laid, while she prefers to drift down the deserted roads into unknown territory. Although Movern's dialogue is very limited throughout the film, we can begin to interpret how she is feeling via the visually-appealing set design.

It has to be said, also, that Morton is a very beautiful woman, and her equally-as-stunning performance meant that I found it very difficult to take my eyes off of her throughout the duration of the film. The whole time she looked immune to the camera staring at her, as if she had completely embedded herself within the mind-state of the character who'd just seen her lover commit suicide. Of course, an actor is expected to interpret the role of the character they're playing, but Morton was so convincing in her subtle performance as Morvern that it was as if I could feel her soul reaching out beyond the Glaswegian cold. Yes, it was that good.

Morvern Callar is an unusual but incredibly moving experience of individual alienation and despair, overall. It's a film done in minimalist form, but one that will evoke a number of different viewpoints towards the fascinating complexity of the central character. It's a hauntingly bleak film, but one that you can definitely admire. I found it really quite extraordinary.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.