Samantha Morton completism. This one was on the pile since forever, mostly because I've struggled to get started with all of Lynne Ramsay's movies; this was the first I managed to get all the way through. She directed a screenplay she co-wrote with Liana Dignini based on Alan Warner's book with the same title (1995). Prompted by Jason Di Rosso's mention of a a new book by Anwen Crawford on this movie.
It's Christmastime in or near Glasgow and some people have seen enough of those. Morton responds to her boyfriend's departure by going out partying with her bestie Kathleen McDermott. After recovering she decides to pirate his novel and spend his money on a jaunt to Andalucía, Spain but not before slicing up his mortal remains. Finally, a use for the great Scottish outdoors! The packaged tour encourages industrialised hedonistic bad behaviour; McDermott takes to it like a thawed-out fish but Morton seems mostly disconnected until she encounters a boy who has also lost someone. There's a scene that I took to be a homage to Manuel from Fawlty Towers (~ 1975). Morton drags McDermott up the coast a bit where they're sort-of running the bulls. A publisher comes through with more money than Morton could ever dream of but the bestie cannot imagine leaving Glasgow. Morton departs, alone.
Morton's character is deliberately underexplained, which would have been fine if she exhibited a bit more of the quiet/internalised desperation about her Scottish situation that came out in one line about how many years she has until she can draw a pension. Mike Leigh did a better job on that front in All or Nothing (2002); perhaps I was insufficiently sympathetic to track the subtleties here. McDermott mostly just giggled all the time, a good time girl who also lacked character development. She's more rusted on to Glasgow but we're not shown why; her excitement at the prospect of an Englishman coming to visit her suggests she should also be eyeing the exits. One thread is how money cleaves people from their situations and generally decreases social adhesion.
The camerawork is often very jittery, trying to evoke some urgency from outside the frame when there is or could be enough going on within it. At other times it superbly captured some messy and/or sublime imagery. There is a lot of unselfconscious nudity. I missed a fair chunk of the dialogue, at least sometimes due to the sound mix. I didn't find it all that emotionally involving, which was perhaps the point.
Roger Ebert: three-and-a-half stars and an inaccurate review. A Critic's Pick by Elvis Mitchell. The source novel "felt like an answer to Irvine Welsh's book Trainspotting (1993)". (Women are from the west, men the east?) "A nihilist road movie." And some hefty caveats. Stephanie Zacharek at length. That shot of Morton on a balcony against this expanse of Spanish hotel is very striking. All claim the boyfriend's suicide is selfish but it did provide Morton with the means to escape and start her own life.
