Morvern Callar (2002)

Before my youngest son took Introduction to Film Analysis, I thought that I watched a broad range of movies on a regular basis.  I did not have the idea that I was on par with serious film people, but I thought that I was reasonably well rounded in the film department.  It turns out that I was mistaken.

This course is the very first film class, the lowest of the low in terms of course number (ie. 001) and I am having trouble following the reading from academic sources--and the book, which is very good, would be much more understandable if I had recently watched the 200+ movies that it references to give examples of various filming techniques.  Then there are the movies themselves.

This is one of them, which was viewed the week of feminism in film.  Morvern comes home to discover a dead body sprawled across the threshold between the kitchen and the living room--it looks like he cut his wrists in the kitchen, then crawled as far as he could get--there is a suicide note typed on his computer addressed to her, leaving her his ATM card and code so that she can pay for the funeral and instructions to submit his book to a publisher that he has chosen.

So, what does she do?  Nothing.  She takes a bath, goes clubbing, and the next day she goes to her job as a cashier in a supermarket.  She says nothing about the dead guy on her floor.  She steps over him to heat up a pizza in her oven.  Next she claims the book as her own, sends it to a publisher, cuts him up in the bath tub, and backpacks into the hinterlands to bury him.  All of this makes her seem wither autistic or evil but she really seems neither.  The movie has an interesting pace, and Morvern is interesting, if a little hard to decipher.  She takes the funeral money and goes off to Spain--I did not end up with a good feeling about what her future holds--she seems like most lottery winners--ill prepared for their sudden gains.  Watch it and see what you think--then explain it to me.