Reviews

This film has a very clever idea but one gets the sense while watching it that the idea was never completely formed. It takes place in a world where those who has survived horrific accidents place bets on their luck. Like I said, before, cool idea but completely farfetched and the film never gets away from that. There is no explanation, on how this dark sinister world was set up. There are rules: you can't touch a lucky person or take their picture. What?! Why?! And what is the point of being the luckiest person in the world and not being able to touch anyone. What a sad and lonely existence. This a film that takes place in the shadows, but its shadows are so sketchy that the film bounces back and forth from suspense to the absurd. For example, at the end, a female cop interrupts a game in session after wandering down a dark maze of corridors. How the hell did she find the right room? All the doors like exactly the same. Well, whatever, we never completely believe the situation and or care for any the characters. The film needs more time for exposition not plot twists.

I think the key to understanding Lynne Ramsey's "Movern Callar" is to view Movern as a kind of child. If you look at Ramsey's other films, you see her fantastic way with child actors. In her first short film, "Small Deaths," follow a girl in three separate traumatic scenes of her childhood and adolescence. In another short, "The Gasman" is seen through the eyes of a small girl that doesn't understand her father's relationship with another woman. And in her excellent debut feature, "Ratcatcher," is an assembly of brilliant child actors. In this film, Movern looks at her boyfriend's death as a child would. She plays in the dirt, she goes raving, she hops off to Spain. Movern is a woman waking up to her own mortality and sensuality. Her process is very child-like. In a way, her boyfriend's death is a birth for her. She does a lot of thinking in this movie, she just doesn't share it with us.

This is not a bad movie. It isn't a good one or even a good B-movie, well, B movie isn't the right category, T & A is more appropriate. I mean, when your movie's protagonists are as underdressed as these girls, well I think you get my meaning. But for what it is, it is surprisingly well made. The whole setup of the film is essentially a remake (or adaptation) of A Dangerous Game. Some bikini-clad girls escape from a slave ship and crash land on a mysterious planet only to be hunted by a crazy rich guy. Wow, I can't wait until these guys do Moby Dick. The film is enjoyable, the film I mean, not the breasts. Duoh! I better shut up. Yes, I would recommend this to anyone who falls asleep during a baseball game on tv only to wake up five hours later to have this on.