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Ratcatcher on DVD (1999)

Ratcatcher cover art
Average rating: (68%)
1214719152049
3.5
 
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: 96 mins
Certificate: 15
User collections: the best of british | 10 Quality British Independent Films | Films that stole my heart and polished my soul | Ellen Page's Favourite Films | Top 20 Lovefilm Rentals (June 2008) | My Favourites
Genres: Drama
Languages: English
Released: 01/09/2003

Brief synopsis of 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with his increasing lack of communication with his drunken football-loving father, causes James to become increasingly withdrawn, fantasizing about his family moving to a newly constructed apartment complex at the city limits on the edge of a beautiful, golden field of grain.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.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

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.

Chicago Sun

"...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..."

New York Times

"...A gorgeous blend of beauty and squalor, packed with imagery that will play over and over in your head for weeks....The most lovely debut in a long time."

See all 6 Critics Reviews »

Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 2 starsratcatcher

A customer from Surrey, England , 10/07/2004

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.)

  8 out of 13 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsStar catcher

johnnyfraudster from greater london , 29/06/2004

Lyne Ramsey's debut feature is a truly magical experience. Despite the grim nature of the setting and the story, it manages to lift you beyond the depressing subject matter by allowing the scenes to unfold themselves.

It is a faultless piece of period reconstruction and ensues melodrama for acute observation. It is at times uncannily real and you sometimes you get the feeling you are watching a film from that era rather than about that era.

The mostly amateur cast bring grit, realism and authenticity to the script. Despite the down to earth subject matter the cinematography is truly out of this world, quite literally in the scene where a pet mouse flies into space attached to a balloon. It is this kind of original style and individuality which makes Ramsey's film stand out so much from the usual british fare. This is the sort of film we should be making: stylish, original, believable, powerful and entertaining.

  5 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsSuperb

Lee Arnold from Liverpool England , 29/12/2004

Ken Loach at his best,fantastic acting,excellent screenplay.Grimm reality that is very gripping and amusing. HAD to watch it twice.Martin Compstom(lead role) a revelation.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsFind a scriptwriter

Zamy from London [Highly rated reviewer] , 19/04/2005

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.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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