Rating: 
Summary: Released from the Mundane
Review: Didn't anyone realize there is more to meet the eye than the superficial and assumed events that occur during the film? I fail to see how anyone could be attracted to this movie without being able to analyze it for its more expressive content.
Morvern is awakened and released from her monotony by an otherwise crippling event. It could be said that she is immoral, or, that she is thrusted into an opportunity. She chooses a life outside of her mundane existence. She only takes Lana with her because she assumes her friendship will continue to be meaningful. Morvern doesn't really want to party. She simply doesn't know how to adjust. Her "sexcapade" was actually her revisiting her late boyfriend. This event evidently serves as some closure for her, whether or not it was an actual physical occurrence. As her trip progresses, she is rewarded for her adventurous free-thinking, and later is stripped of her extraneous attachments. The movie finishes without a conveniently tied-up end. Whereas this might annoy some, others might realize there really aren't any answers. And trying to find one in a movie about a girl who discovers her dead lover won't get you anywhere but thinking of your own.
In addition, it is important to note how the soundtrack serves as an integral part of the movie. It is at times stark, and both emotionally and vacantly touches the void left in the boyfriend's wake.
Rating: 
Summary: Numbing, beautiful, powerful, hypnotic.
Review: "Morvern Callar" is such a wonderful piece if cinematic art. It's tempo and style set it apart from most other films you'll see. The opening of the film has very little dialogue and consists mostly of beautiful and yet disturbing images. The story is about a woman, Morvern Callar, who's boyfriend committs suicide. She works in a grocery store and leads a pretty simple life. The film for the most part is just watching Morvern in her life. This is an example of how a film can be just a succession of beautiful photographs. The music creates a hypnotic and numbing effect than puts the viewer in a sort of trance. This reminded me a little bit of Agnes Varda's "Cleo from 5 to 7" in that it just unobtructively follows a woman's life. Definitely see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Numbing, beautiful, powerful, hypnotic.
Review: "Morvern Callar" is such a wonderful piece if cinematic art. It's tempo and style set it apart from most other films you'll see. The opening of the film has very little dialogue and consists mostly of beautiful and yet disturbing images. The story is about a woman, Morvern Callar, who's boyfriend committs suicide. She works in a grocery store and leads a pretty simple life. The film for the most part is just watching Morvern in her life. This is an example of how a film can be just a succession of beautiful photographs. The music creates a hypnotic and numbing effect than puts the viewer in a sort of trance. This reminded me a little bit of Agnes Varda's "Cleo from 5 to 7" in that it just unobtructively follows a woman's life. Definitely see this film.
Rating: 
Summary: read the book, it doesn't translate well as a film
Review: Fortunately I read Morvern Callar in one sitting before exposing myself to the film. The film isn't bad, it just doesn't translate well. Translation is one of the problems, the characters accents are so thick at times that it's very difficult to follow what they're saying. I was hoping for a subtitle option in the extras menu. Morvern Callar deals with how Morvern copes or rather doesn't cope with the suicide of her boyfriend by working during the day and drinking, drugging and partying during the night while her boyfriend's corpse decomposes on her kitchen floor.
It's easy to get into a completely character driven, nearly plotless novel dealing with a character coping with grief but I found after the first 40 minutes of watching the film, it didn't capture my attention. The party scenes are expertly filmed, the director does a incredible job of capturing Morvern's sense of despair and the soundtrack is excellent. However, the overall feel of the novel was lost. Even the end is different. Morvern returns to Spain to party some more in the film but in the book, Morvern disappears to a tiny fishing village on the coast of Scotland after discovering she's pregnant with what may or may not be her boyfriend's baby. That ending certianly does give the story a different feel.
Read the novel, skip the film. An interesting adaptation of a really good book. 2 1/2 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Only the stone-hearted will hate it
Review: Funny, I attended the same double-bill as ligsoy (below). LILYA 4-EVER, while worthy, shoves your face in the vomit of human existence for its entire length. MORVERN CALLAR, on the other hand, starts in a similar place but lifts you to a state of grace about midway through, and manages to sustain that delicate tone until the end. The trouble ligsoy had understanding the dialogue was the theater's fault (Dolby Digital reprocessed for Mono), not the film's. In a proper environment (even on DVD), MORVERN has the most sophisticated sound mix of any film I've seen this year. What little dialogue is in the movie isn't even crucial to the plot -- this is a movie about physical sensation and spiritual awakening, not wordplay. Many viewers like myself have keyed into this and found the experience invigorating. People who hate this movie remind me of Morvern's friend Lanna, who freaks out when Morvern exposes her to the raw Spanish countryside (Lanna prefers the safe, formulaic predictability of Club Med). It says something that people who don't like this movie react so violently. Why do they find so ugly that which others find profoundly beautiful? I suggest saving your scorn for brain-numbing Hollywood sewer blockage like HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS. Telling others that MORVERN CALLAR is the "worst movie you've ever seen" will only discourage them from seeing one of the best movies they might ever see. It's certainly the best movie I've seen in the last three years, and I can't wait to see whatever Lynne Ramsay directs next.
Rating: 
Summary: In a story, something must happen
Review: I am a great Samantha Morton fan, and so it was high expectations that I got my hands on this film. And I was absolutely astonished by how bad it is, notwithstanding all the awards it apparently has garnered. I don't think films should be filled with car chases and gun fights, but SOMETHING'S GOT TO HAPPEN. Minutes, tens of minutes, scores of minutes, go by in which Morton does little more than stare into space and smoke cigarettes. At the film's start fully a half hour goes by, and there is virtually no meaningful action unless you count a bunch of quick cuts of a dope party. In addition, the leads' accents are so thick as to be virtually unintelligible. But, in the end, who really cares? Finally, exasperated, I tried watching it at 2x, and then 4x, regular speed. And it was still slow. Skip it!
Rating: 
Summary: poor sound, no subtitles
Review: I could not understand the dialogue on the dvd. It was mixed too low and the British slang and accent made it impossible to understand. This is a perfect example of a movie that requires subtitles for an American audience (which were not included on the dvd I viewed). Visually the movie was good and interesting and overall the movie could have been good but the soundtrack was annoying (including the choice of music).
Rating:
Summary: Movies don't have to treat you like an idiot
Review: I don't normally review films on Amazon, but I couldn't leave Mr Siebrits' bitter rant as this film's only review. For a start, be warned, this film isn't for everyone - it is very much in the European arthouse tradition (think Kieslowski, think Wim Wenders, think David Lynch on mogadon). It obviously wasn't Mr Siebrits' cup of tea - perhaps he was queuing for the latest Adam Sandler release or The Lord of the Rings and wandered in by mistake. But enough of that, what do you get with this film?Well, for a start it's slow - almost hypnotic - and i'm not sure if it will translate to TV where it is more difficult to give films like this the concentration they deserve. Ms Ramsay directed the marvellous Ratcatcher 3 years ago on a miniscule budget - this cost more money, but somehow feels more like a first film - it is brave, beautifully shot and the audio editing is perhaps the finest I have ever experienced (background noise creates intense moods within the piece when it is pushed to the foreground, and the soundtrack - from a mix-tape her boyfriend gave her as a Christmas present - of Aphex Twin, Can and the Velvet Underground is one of the best I've heard for ages). The film follows the fortunes of Morvern after she wakes up one christmas in Scotland with her would-be novelist boyfriend having killed himself during the night. In shock (perhaps) she continues going to work at the local supermarket, stepping over the body as she walks about her pokey flat. She sends his novel, which he says in his suicide note he had written for her, to a publisher who accepts it and she jets off to Ibiza with her best friend on the proceeds and what is left in her boyfriend's bank account. The film has very little dialogue and you are almost left to create your own story through Morvern's eyes and ears - sounds, colours, scenery all take on a heightened sense of beauty. At no point in this film are you told what is going on in Morvern's head, why she does what she does, why she goes where she does, but this is a well-made and ambitious piece of film-making that is truly unlike anything I've seen on the cinema before (and I can't say that very often). Yes, the film is intended as art (rather than the pejorative 'Arty') and contains no explosions, signposts and jokes, but also neither is it pretentious nonsense. If you liked Mulholland Drive or Kieslowski's 'Colours' trilogy, you might like this. If you're looking for James Bond, Jackie Chan, the Coen Brothers or Harry Potter, you're likely to be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: What gives with the sound?
Review: I enjoyed this movie and thought the DVD was okay, except for the sound. In parts of the film the sound is out of sync with the video so that it looks like it was dubbed. The scene in which Morvern meets the book publishers is a case in point. Whether it was just the copy of the DVD I bought or it is simply a bad mix, I don't know. Anyone else have this problem?
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: I found this film to be one of the most baffling and off-putting pieces of cinema I've ever seen. The beginning is intriguing enough, as Morvern discovers her dead boyfriend and decides to go on living in their apartment with his corpse in plain view. She reads a note he leaves for her on his computer, along with a manuscript of a novel of his. The movie could go in a multitude of directions after this, but this character sucks the life out of the movie. I had trouble staying awake and keeping my sanity during viewing it. And funnily enough, this seemed exactly like the kind of movie I would usually go for--quirky, independent, different. The problem seems to be that the director attempts to show us how Morvern becomes unhinged and lost after her boyfriend's suicide, but the movie itself becomes meaningless and without an anchor or any grounding. It too is lost.
Do yourself a favor and avoid this like the plague.
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