The opening scenes of Lynne Ramsay's second feature, Morvern Callar, contain some promise before soon enough the film amounts to nothing. I can't say I've seen a morally meaningless film to this extent in a long time. Morvern Callar is the main character, a girl who in the first frames wakes up to find her boyfriend as a suicide victim. A computer letter was left for her providing an "i love you" and the novel he had written that he claimed was for her. As shocking an event as this is, apparently the emotional remains of it only constitute Morvern flickering a lighter in her face repetitively and then proceeding to go to a caustic party. As if that wasn't proper enough, she also manages to steal her boyfriend's novel by writing it in under her name. What the film provides after this is a bland, shallow character study of a sleazy working class raver/supermarket clerk absent of any real psychological or social depth. Instead, it seems as if Ramsay believes she can penetrate the complexity of the human psyche with the use of suffocatingly baroque close-ups.
In all honesty the film doesn't do much with its story after the melancholy opening. The forceful focus is the stylization of the film. Steamy montage here, bouncy techno beat there; the coming of these motifs bring with them the rapid introduction of the second part of the film: Morvern finding herself. This is not without the company of her friend Lanna though, who is equally if not more frivolous. Their adventures are highlighted by a trip to Spain, which felt to me with its random cultural festivities a rather contrived means of introspective enlightenment on the part of Morvern. The frequent spurts of nudity, sexuality, and hard partying certainly could have been a worthy counterpoint if the main character had perhaps actually been realistically floored by the sudden loss of her boyfriend. Sure, maybe she didn't love him and was slightly relieved, but nonetheless was it really a cause for celebration? Ramsay makes it very difficult for one to sympathize with this selfish protagonist, and perhaps only succeeds in her sometimes delicate visuals. I believe that I still would like to see her debut Ratcatcher, for it has been described as deeply poetic, but I won't be drooling for it. This film was forgettable.
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