Ratcatcher
1999
Lynne Ramsey's bleak, beautifully photographed debut unflinchingly portrays life in a Glasgow housing project during the 1973 garbageworkers strike as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old James Gillespie (William Eadie, in a soulful debut). As the film opens, James is playing with a friend near a filthy canal behind the .. Read more
| Starring | Tommy Flanagan, Bill Eadie, Mandy Matthews, Michelle Stewart |
|---|---|
| Director | Lynne Ramsay |
| Genres | Drama |
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Ratcatcher
Lynne Ramsey's bleak, beautifully photographed debut unflinchingly portrays life in a Glasgow housing project during the 1973 garbageworkers strike as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old James Gillespie (William Eadie, in a soulful debut). As the film opens, James is playing with a friend near a filthy canal behind the projects when his friend tragically falls into the water and drowns. James chooses not to tell anyone that he saw the boy die, knowing that he will be implicated. This secret, along with his increasing lack of communication with his drunken football-loving father, causes James to become increasingly withdrawn, fantasizing about his family moving to a newly constructed apartment complex at the city limits on the edge of a beautiful, golden field of grain. As the garbage piles up and rats take up residency around the complex as if they were new tenants, James finds temporary solace in his friendships with Kenny, an odd boy who loves animals, and Margaret Anne, a teenage misfit who lets the local boys use her body as they wish.
While undeniably grim, RATCATCHER manages to combine unusually rich imagery and spare use of dialogue to create a realistic portrait of a simultaneously beautiful and cruel world. Punctuated with unexpected humor, Ramsey's film is subtle and rewarding.
| Starring | Tommy Flanagan, Bill Eadie, Mandy Matthews, Michelle Stewart, Leanne Mullen, Lynne Ramsay Jr., John Miller, Jackie Quinn, Rory McCann |
|---|---|
| Director | Lynne Ramsay |
| Studio | PATHE DISTRIBUTION |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 36 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 01 Sep 2003 Production year: 1999 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (6)
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Having won prizes at Cannes for her short films Small Deaths and Gasman, Lynne Ramsay made her feature debut with this unsentimental portrait of growing up in Glasgow in the 1970s. Achieving a lyrical realism that often recalls Jean Vigo's 1934 classic L'Atalante, Ramsay manages to turn a run-down housing estate at the height of a refuse strike into fertile ground for the imagination of 12-year-old William Eadie, a neglected scallywag forced to bear the burden of accidentally drowning his friend in the canal. Alternately seeking solace in the shell of a green-belt dream house and the company of flirty teenager Leanne Mullen, Eadie gives a remarkably natural performance, as does John Miller as the eager pal whose misfortunes with pets reinforce the film's sweetly grim humour. This is amiable, assured and affecting.
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"...Ramsay creates a searing portrait of a boy in a spiritual trap. Pay particular attention to Rachel Portman's spare music score that in counterpoint offsets Ramsay's imagery with a presence that does not simply massage our mood..."
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Most helpful member's review
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13 out of 18 people found this review helpful
ratcatcher
This artily shot and well-acted film is certainly evocative, but ultimately it's dull. Although bookended by two shocking events, there is next to no plot inbetween. Just the continued theme of disease and decay on a Scottish housing estate.
As a sort of grim tone-poem, it works well enough. However, I thought it struggled to maintain interest over 90 minutes.
(Incidentally, there are no subtitles on this DVD, so if you're struggling to follow the accents, you're out of luck.) -
Most recent members' review
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Find a scriptwriter
No doubt about it Lynne Ramsey is a rising star among our young directors. This is a film that was clearly close to her heart and she films her story with considerable visual style. That said the characters and the story are under-developed and don't quite hold the interest. She wrote the script herself and that may have been her mistake and the input of a good scriptwriter could perhaps have lifted the film. Still an interesting debut; Ms Ramsey is clearly a new director to watch.
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News and features
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Let the Right One In
- 06 Apr 2009
Film of the year so far! Imagine, say, My Life as a Dog, Ratcatcher, or even 400 Blows, one of those bittersweet portraits of lonely children bumping up against the hard knocks of parental neglect, abuse and poverty. Cross that kind of acute honesty and naturalism with an edgy near-the-knuckle horror movie – Near Dark, for instance, or Ringu. Now set this intriguing mutation in the suburbs of Stockholm during the depths of a Swedish winter. Let the Right One In is that movie, and it’ Read more
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