Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Morvern Callar Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf February 13, 2022

Lynn Ramsay’s “Morvern Callar” isn't a story of a young woman's mourning period, nor is it a tale of the pain that remains when a loved one dies. The film is more impressionistic than that, using environments and silent atmosphere to piece together a journey of self for the eponymous character as she evolves from a meek girlfriend and minimum-wage slave to a woman finding a life of her own.

On Christmas Eve, Morvern Callar (Samantha Morton) wakes up to find her boyfriend has committed suicide in the kitchen of their apartment. After tears, confusion, and the opening of the man’s suicide letter on their computer, Morvern sees that her lover has left behind his unpublished novel, with his last wish being that she attempt to find a publisher and sell it. For the 21-year-old supermarket clerk, the choice is clear. Morvern places her name on the manuscript and uses the funeral money to travel to Spain with her friend, Lanna (Kathleen McDermott), working through the complexity of these life-changing events as she experiences a different tomorrow.

The free form, almost mesmerizing cinematic design used by Ramsay for “Morven Callar” isn’t always easy to connect to, with the movie based on a novel by Alan Warner. Ramsay uses the novel’s structure as a starting point, and as a denouement, with the meaty in-between traded for more abstract odysseys with Morvern that range from Lynchian bizarreness to sexual heat with sad people. These adventures, scored to selections from a mix tape the boyfriend left for Morvern, provide ample visual power but little emotional punch. And feeling is what “Morvern Callar” needs more of. Ramsay isn’t interested in making the character and her personal connections hit the viewer in a direct way. The film is bookended by structure and plot, but Ramsay doesn’t stay there for long, soon pursuing a poetic flow to the feature that remains outside of the character, pushing the picture into more of a directorial exercise at times.

Morvern Callar Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation is sourced from a 2K "restoration" of the 35mm interpositive. "Morvern Callar" is a picture committed to abstract imagery and intense textures at times, and the viewing experience is quite compelling. Detail is preserved throughout the viewing experience, highlighting skin textures and expressive faces. Clarity is also welcome with housing visits and tourism, getting a sense of character surroundings, with decent dimension found along the way. Colors are accurate, securing saturated imagery and natural skintones. Livelier hues, such as Christmas lighting and sun-drenched vistas, register as intended. Delineation is satisfactory. Grain is film-like. Source is in good condition.

Morvern Callar Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix is unusual in design, balancing complete silence with more immersive musical offerings, with mixtape selections offering circular engagement, and a club visit brings pounding techno to the listening event. Dialogue exchanges are clear and emotive, handling heavy accents comfortably (subtitles are included and quite helpful). Atmospherics secure naturalistic moods and room tone.

Morvern Callar Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Booklet (12 pages) offers essays by K.J. Relth-Miller and Margaret Barton-Fumo.

• Commentary features film historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson.

• "Somewhere Beautiful" (7:29, HD) is a video essay by Chris O'Neill.

• And a U.K. Trailer (2:29, HD) and a U.S. Trailer (2:01, HD) are included.

Morvern Callar Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If there must be an actress hired to convey so much in a stare, Ramsay does the movie a great favor by bringing in Morton to capture the sea change inside the character. Morton is hypnotic in "Morvern Callar," using long stretches of silence to detail the experience of this young woman, who's been offered an extreme psychological event she mostly wants to hide from view. Morton keeps the film engrossing, even when Ramsay wants to take off on tangents involving the natural world and behavioral study. There is little dialog for the actress to work with – mostly moments of thinking and gazing -- but she uses this time wonderfully, providing some understanding of Morvern's state of shock and ultimate motivations.