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Ratcatcher

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Ratcatcher (2000)

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Reviews Counted:35

Fresh:29

Rotten:6

Average Rating:7.3/10

Consensus: Critics find Ratcatcher to be hauntingly beautiful, though its story is somewhat hard to stomach.

Runtime: 90 mins

Genre: Dramas

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with his increasing lack of communication with his drunken football-loving father, causes James to become increasingly withdrawn, fantasizing about his family moving to a newly constructed apartment complex at the city limits on the edge of a beautiful, golden field of grain.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

Starring: William Eadie, Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews

Starring: William Eadie, Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Director: Lynne Ramsay

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Sep 10, 2002

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Ratcatcher

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | comment Comment
08/07/08
Mark Halverson
Mark Halverson
Sacramento News & Review

This is often a stunningly, grimly beautiful film, but one that leaves a bitter aftertaste.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
12/30/06
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

Some may find such wrenching realities shocking, if not reprehensible. Others may glean meaning in their starkness -- a meaning that transcends the film's despair with the power of its truth.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
07/21/05
Bruce Westbrook
Bruce Westbrook
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
07/17/05
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

No review available.

comment Comment
07/06/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

artful and astonishingly beautiful

comment Comment
04/29/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Writer-director Ramsay has a deft touch throughout: Her actors all seem natural, and her occasional touches of magic realism...help to soften the blows of squalor.

comment Comment
07/21/04
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
New Times

Ratcatcher is an inner-city tragedy that plays its story simply, sorrowfully, and beautifully.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Kimberly Jones
Kimberly Jones
Austin Chronicle
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: San Diego Metropolitan | comment Comment
10/21/02
Jean Lowerison
Jean Lowerison
San Diego Metropolitan

Done so deftly, with such a exquisitely poetic touch and keen understanding of the paradoxical coexistence of filth and beauty in the world, that you can forgive some of its narrative triteness.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
09/22/02
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

Difficult but rewarding

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
09/13/02
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

Ramsay's imaginative shot-making gifts make for a sublime result, creating a different sort of magical realism than we're used to seeing.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
08/15/02
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
04/03/02
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In any good film, the opening shot is telling, and Ratcatcher is a very good film.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
03/22/02
Rick Groen
Rick Groen
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sight and Sound | comment Comment
03/05/02
Charlotte O'Sullivan
Charlotte O'Sullivan
Sight and Sound

A surprisingly assured and highly original directorial debut.

Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | comment Comment
03/05/02
Jeremy Heilman
Jeremy Heilman
MovieMartyr.com

Lynne Ramsay bears watching. But when we talk about advances in the art of movies we have to be talking about leaps of feeling, not just leaps of technique.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
12/19/01
Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

William Eadie's acting helps make this drama an enlightening and intense experience.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
11/13/01
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

Ratcatcher goes straight to the head.

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
10/19/01
Marta Barber
Marta Barber
Miami Herald
 
 
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