Morvern Callar

Samantha Morton plays the enigmatic title character in Lynne Ramsay’s dreamy and atmospheric road movie.

Samantha Morton is exceptional as the titular character who flees her small-town Scottish existence following her boyfriend’s suicide. Adopting his unpublished manuscript as her own, she sells it to a publisher for an advance and sets out for southern Spain on a journey of discovery.

The taciturn Callar barely says a word during the film, a state of near-silence that’s effortlessly expressed by Morton and offset by a driving soundtrack of Krautrock and electronica. Lynne Ramsay’s second feature, following Ratcatcher and before We Need to Talk About Kevin, is one of the most distinctive British films of recent times.