Morvern Callar
Cowboy Pictures | Release Date: December 20, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
0
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A work of astonishing delicacy and force, a tone poem about the Frankenstein jolts that all of us, at one time or another, have to live through. Read full review
90
Washington PostDesson Thomson
As Morvern, Morton is disconcertingly enigmatic, often bordering on catatonic. But she carries the movie effortlessly. And even though we're on the outside looking in, she carries us along, too. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
Ramsay reaches out boldly with a film that is as unsettling as it is minimalist. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
(Morton's) character here is emotionally mute -- though Morvern speaks, she can't or won't reveal what's in her heart -- and her performance is brilliant from start to finish.
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
I think the answer is right there in the film, but less visible to American viewers because we are less class-conscious than the filmmakers. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A gossamer tale about a heavy subject -- a passive creature who slowly emerges as the active author of her own life. Read full review
88
New York PostV.A. Musetto
Morton deserves an Oscar nomination, but she is unlikely to get one. The movie is too dark and out of the mainstream to impress the conservative fogies who vote for the prizes. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerPaula Nechak
There are two reasons Ramsay succeeds with a story that might at best be called morbid: She visually transforms the dreary expanse of dead-end distaste the characters inhabit into a poem of art, music and metaphor -- and she has the perfect actress to embody Morvern. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Ramsay's second feature is an extraordinary adaptation of fellow-Scot Alan Warner's acclaimed novel. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
A strange and beautiful film. Read full review
80
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
This minimalist film is slightly hobbled by its minimal plot; it's the crucial difference between a movie with moments of greatness and a great movie. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
One of the glories of the film is that Ramsay keeps us rigorously to Morvern's point of view without ever being explicit about what's going on in her head. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Morvern Callar not only attempts to reveal an interior life, usually the province of novels, but also focuses on the interior life of a woman who refuses to open up to anyone. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley Jones
Ramsay is experimental, unconventional, and forever reaching at the gorgeousness in grief and despair. Her film moves slow as molasses, slow as paint drying -– and all the better to see the colors and the complexities. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Morton acts up a storm, and Ramsay continues her rise as England's hottest young female filmmaker. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc Mohan
In Morvern Callar, the subject matter may be morbid and unappealing, but the director handles it with a visual poetry and an eye for hidden beauty that marks a filmmaker of the first order. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
With little dialogue to assist her -- just the strains of that wonderfully organic music -- she still manages to suggest the internal struggle, and to slowly reveal a fierce toughness that flies in the face of conventional morality. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
What gives the movie real flesh and fantasy is the actress playing this part, the incandescent Morton. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's a smartly surreal little movie, and again shows why, whenever there's a role that calls for an actress who can speak volumes without much dialogue (as in "Minority Report" and "Sweet and Lowdown"), the call goes out to Morton. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Strange, moody film. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
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. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh Larsen
Ramsay, whose Ratcatcher was noxiously obsessed with the miseries of life in a 1970s Glasgow housing complex, finds a locus in Morvern’s stunned grief. Morvern Callar is equally bleak, but to a purpose. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
More engrossing than convincing. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A movie's refusal to judge bad behavior can be a subtle way of trumping the audience -- a passive-aggressive form of one-upmanship. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderMeredith Brody
Fans of director Lynne Ramsay's first movie, the bleak Ratcatcher won't be surprised that this little existential exercise makes The Stranger look like a funwagon. Read full review
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