The night I saw this film, I had a dream about having long ago invented, with some friends, a martial-arts throwing star that had one of its point fashioned as a phillips-head screwdriver, which we had used to break-ins in the name of civil disobedience. It struck me that I had a dream that created a false memory. Conversely, this film starts with a false memory that creates a dream for the title character.
MORVERN CALLAR (2002) (A) - This film has haunted me since I first saw it at the 2002 Santa Fe Film Festival. In the opening scene, Morvern Callar (Samantha Morton) is near-catatonic in an apartment ominously lit by Christmas decorations while her boyfriend lies dead on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood, a suicide. We, as viewers, are initially as discombobulated as she appears to be; Morvern goes off to a Christmas party and otherwise wanders around town for several scenes, before she finally deals with her devastating situation.
When she finally deals with the tragic scene, Morvern not only scrubs the apartment but she also reviews her boyfriend's suicide note, which directs her to the latest novel he has written. The note asks her to submit it to a publisher, and she does so -- except first she strips his name from it and puts her own on it, and then sends it off.
Morvern works a dead-end job at a grocery store in her small seaside hometown with her ditzy best pal, Lanna (Kathleen McDermott). With a little cash bequeathed to her from the dead man's bank account, Morvern, who is keeping the boyfriend's death a secret (she lies and says he left her), suggests a warm-weather getaway to Ibiza. Off she and Lanna go, with Lanna unaware that her friend's actions will be skewed by grief, guilt and a distorted sense of freedom. When a publisher shows interest in the book, it begins to dawn on Morvern that she might be able to truly escape the doldrums of her existence.
"Morvern Callar" is one of the earliest films from Socttish master Lynne Ramsay ("Ratcatcher," "We Need to Talk About Kevin"), whose stories always feel a little off-kilter and spurred by a sense of urgency. This is her best film, She shoots guerrilla-documentary style as the young women let loose in paradise. But Morvern is haunted the whole time -- not only by death but by the hope of ultimate escape -- reminded of her relationship by the mix tape that she listens to on an old-fashioned Walkman. This is the first film I can recall that toggles between presenting the songs as full sound (as if we had the earbuds in our own ears) and the tinny version we hear whenever Morvern takes her earbuds out. It's a jarring metaphor for us being in Morvern's head, as well as a reminder of her struggles between recognizing the recent past and letting it go.
Morton, in her early 20s at the time, hints at endless layers of emotion and angst. At the time she was on the verge of breaking through with "In the Bedroom," though she's had a rather quiet, steady career. Here she is the perfect vessel for Ramsay's fascinating, meandering narrative, which plays out angularly, as if the filmmaker is as curious as we are about where this story will end up. There is a surprising amount of dark humor throughout. At times this feels like a slapstick buddy-road movie, with clever sight gags and callbacks.
It's not all gloom and doom. It can be arch and thought-provoking. In the end, this bruising film is about a small-town young woman disoriented by trauma but, like a Sofia Coppola heroine, lured by a glimmer of hope of privilege that sudden success might bring her way. It's riveting from beginning to end. I won't reveal the final song on the mixtape that Morvern listens to, but know that it is perfect.
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* Note: This time I watched the film (via Criterion streaming) with subtitles in order to catch all the nuances of the heavy brogues by most of the characters. The first time I saw it, in a packed theater in Santa Fe, we didn't get subtitles. My favorite moment of the film-going experience came when -- as most of us were obviously struggling to pick up the dialogue -- a guy behind me leaned over to his date and whispered, not "What did she say?" but rather "What's a 'fortnight'?"
BONUS TRACKS
The soundtrack is full of cool sounds, a truly wonderful classic mixtape of bangers, as the kids say. There are a bunch of songs by krautrock pioneers Can. Here is "Spoon":
Sharing a vibe with the music of Mum, here is Aphex Twin with the hypnotic "Nannou":
Never pass up an excuse to spin Lee Hazlewood (with Nancy Sinatra), "Some Velvet Morning":
Another coincidence, like the dream: The day after I watched the movie, a friend randomly sent a video of a band once touted by a mutual friend, Boards of Canada. I'd never heard of them. I later went back to check the "Morvern Callar" soundtrack, and there they were. Spooky, like this track, the trippy "Everything You Do Is a Balloon":
And this one's pretty, "You Can Fall" by Broadcast:
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