MORVERN CALLAR
Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Written by Ramsay and Liana Dognini, based on Alan Walker's novel
With Samantha Morton and Kathleen McDermott
Distributed by Cowboy Films
***1/2
The final scene of MORVERN CALLAR sums up
the title character's attitude towards life.. Dancing at a rave and
lit by red flickers, she's surrounded by partiers. However, the soundtrack
isn't filled by Sasha & Digweed trance remixes. Instead, we see
and hear her listening to the Mamas & Papas on her late boyfriend's
mix tape. Morvern (Morton) lives by blocking the world out with her own tune.
It often turns her into an anti-heroine. She's callous. selfish and willful,
sometimes to an extremely disturbing extent. She's also open to possibilities
to which more settled people are blind.
Laurent Cantet's TIME OUT reinvents the 70s European road movie for an age
of post-political burnout, where the idea of satisfying work is a chimera
or an impossible fantasy. MORVERN CALLAR breaths new life into the genre,
partially because it stakes a female claim on the Beat idea of finding
oneself on the road. The films of Wim Wenders and Theo Angelopolous, the novels
of Peter Handke and the music of Kraftwerk have already given this concept
European form. However, Ramsay creates a character whose wanderlust is something
new. Her hunger for experience isn't an escape from history or echoes
of dictatorship. It's a personal rite, as is almost everything else that
she does.
MORVERN CALLAR begins with her discovery that her boyfriend has committed
suicide overnight. He's left a computerized note for her, in addition to the
manuscript for his latest novel, a mix tape and his ATM card. Rather than
using his money to pay for a funeral, she submits the manuscript under
her own name and ditches her job at a supermarket to visit Spain with her
friend Lana (McDermott.) Lana has a good time partying at a resort,
but Morvern insists on dragging her deeper into the countryside.
In her debut, RATCATCHER, Ramsay got stuck between poetic reverie and an
inescapable vein of Anglo miserabilism. She's now ditched the miserabilism
and distilled her poetic qualities. The first third of MORVERN CALLER, set
in a small Scottish town, recalls Claire Denis, the Hou Hsiao-hsien of GOODBYE
SOUTH, GOODBYE and the Olivier Assayas of COLD WATER. In fact, a scene at
a bonfire refers overtly to COLD WATER. You can almost reach out and touch
these images.
Using shallow focus, cinematographer Alwin Kuchler keeps Morton close to
the camera while surrounding her with blinking lights off in the distance.
(Her apartment is decorated with a Christmas tree.) Scotland looks dark and
uninviting, but there seems to be something more behind it, just out
of reach out of the camera and Morvern. Her quest to find it propels the
film. Kuchler and Ramsay create three distinct looks for each third
of MORVERN CALLER. The second part, set at a Spanish resort, looks the most
realistic. No distant lights here, just sun, sun and more solar rays. The
third, which takes place in the Spanish countryside, is grittier, tinted
green and yellow and occasionally extremely stylized.
The cast's often-undecipherable Scottish accents - although the English
Morton doesn't adopt one - make MORVERN CALLER seem less loquacious
than it is: dialogue sometimes sounds like a sound effect. Nevertheless,
the film hinges around Morton's performance. Ramsay and Dognini don't idealize
her as a benevolent, neo-hippie free spirit. She pulls Lana out of bed to
drag her off to the Spanish countryside without paying much attention to
the location of her friend's luggage or the man she's in bed with. And
of course, she doesn't exactly treat her boyfriend's body with the greatest
respect, although one never knows if she's acting out of numb apathy, depression
or shock. (Critic J. Hoberman has compared her to Albert Camus' anti-hero
Mersault, who greets his mother's death as no big deal.) Much of the
time, one doesn't know what Morvern is feeling - Ramsay eschews backstory
or overt psychology - yet Morton's performance makes it clear that she's
feeling something behind a numb facade. She can't talk about
her emotions, which remain a mystery, but their cost is visible in
her face. . Similarly, there's something logical behind her willingness
to travel anywhere at the drop of a hat. Her desire to keep moving at any
cost is all that keeps her afloat.
If Ramsay ever learns how to completely integrate poetry and storytelling,
she'll make a great film. As it stands, MORVERN CALLAR never really lives
up to the sensual promise of its first third, becoming more prosaic as it
progresses. However, promise is exactly what the film's about. As it ends,
Morvern stands at yet another destination on a road trip. It's anyone's guess
where she'll wind up. I'm more confident about how Ramsay will progress.