Morvern Callar

Starring: Samantha Morton, Kathleen McDermott

RS: 3of 4 Stars

2002 Drama

Ok, it's arty. Writer-director Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) is more interested in the landscape of the mind than in linear narrative. No matter. As Morvern, a supermarket wage slave in a small Scottish town, Samantha Morton (Minority Report) is so good you'll follow her anywhere.

On Christmas Day, Morvern finds her boyfriend dead, his wrists slashed and a note on a computer telling her to be brave and to sell his novel. She does, but only after putting her name on it and taking her pal, Lanna (scrappy Kathleen McDermott), on a holiday in Spain.

Despite grim doings involving sexual hysteria and chopped-up body parts (don't ask), Ramsay and Morton fill this character study with poetic force and buoyant feeling.

PETER TRAVERS
(January 24, 2003)