Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

A work of astonishing delicacy and force, a tone poem about the Frankenstein jolts that all of us, at one time or another, have to live through.

Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas

Ramsay reaches out boldly with a film that is as unsettling as it is minimalist.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

As Morvern, Morton is disconcertingly enigmatic, often bordering on catatonic. But she carries the movie effortlessly. And even though we're on the outside looking in, she carries us along, too.

Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern

(Morton's) character here is emotionally mute -- though Morvern speaks, she can't or won't reveal what's in her heart -- and her performance is brilliant from start to finish.

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

I think the answer is right there in the film, but less visible to American viewers because we are less class-conscious than the filmmakers.

Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey

A gossamer tale about a heavy subject -- a passive creature who slowly emerges as the active author of her own life.

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Morton deserves an Oscar nomination, but she is unlikely to get one. The movie is too dark and out of the mainstream to impress the conservative fogies who vote for the prizes.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak

There are two reasons Ramsay succeeds with a story that might at best be called morbid: She visually transforms the dreary expanse of dead-end distaste the characters inhabit into a poem of art, music and metaphor -- and she has the perfect actress to embody Morvern.

L.A. Weekly by Ella Taylor

A strange and beautiful film.

TV Guide Magazine by Ken Fox

Ramsay's second feature is an extraordinary adaptation of fellow-Scot Alan Warner's acclaimed novel.

Austin Chronicle by Kimberley Jones

Ramsay is experimental, unconventional, and forever reaching at the gorgeousness in grief and despair. Her film moves slow as molasses, slow as paint drying -– and all the better to see the colors and the complexities.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen

With little dialogue to assist her -- just the strains of that wonderfully organic music -- she still manages to suggest the internal struggle, and to slowly reveal a fierce toughness that flies in the face of conventional morality.

Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan

In Morvern Callar, the subject matter may be morbid and unappealing, but the director handles it with a visual poetry and an eye for hidden beauty that marks a filmmaker of the first order.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Morton acts up a storm, and Ramsay continues her rise as England's hottest young female filmmaker.

Village Voice by J. Hoberman

More engrossing than convincing.

Chicago Reader

Fans of director Lynne Ramsay's first movie, the bleak “Ratcatcher,” won't be surprised that this little existential exercise makes “The Strangef” look like a funwagon.