Steineded How sad is this?

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Layton September Ratcatcher is a beautiful film set in the less aesthetically pleasing back drop drop of the Glasgow tenement blocks of the nineteen seventies. It's a story about childhood, tragedy and an unutterable struggle against circumstance and surrounding before your life has barely begun. This is not a film that roars though, on the contrary it is a very quiet piece with a wistful message. Lynne Ramsey's directorial approach is seemingly non-obtrusive, capturing a naturalism of the child actors that some film makers could only dream of. There are moments that are incredibly bleak, but a melancholic tenderness prevails. The dream like quality as main protagonist James escapes his rat-infested urban home and escapes to the countryside are some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed on film. As he runs out into golden fields, encompassing a little boy who is holding onto his childhood with fingertips...

Sindre Kaspersen Scottish screenwriter and director Lynne Ramsay's feature film debut which she wrote, was shot in Glasgow, Scotland and is a UK-France co-production. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 52nd Cannes Film Festival in 1999, in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 24th Toronto International Film Festival in 1999 and was produced by Gavin Emerson. It tells the story about twelve-year old James who lives with his father, mother and two sisters in a poor neighborhood in Glasgow 1973 where the working class is influenced by a garbage streak that over-floods the streets with trash, rats and misfortune. One day when he is out playing with his friend Ryan down by a lake, the playing gets out of hand and Ryan drowns. In a state of shock James vanishes from the scene of the crime and removes all suspicion away from himself. This tragic event causes James' parents great concern, and while James is at a loss as to whether or not he is going to tell someone what really happened, feelings of guilt begins to absorb him and gradually he slips into a lonely and introvert state that threatens to overshadow his perception of reality.Finely and acutely directed by Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, this quiet and heartrending drama which is narrated from the protagonist's point of view, draws a unsentimental and realistic portrayal of a working-class society struck by inflation in Glasgow during the early 1970s. While notable for it's gritty and naturalistic milieu depictions, stellar production design by production designer Jane Morton, cinematography by German-born cinematographer Alwin H. Kuchler and Lynne Ramsay's distinct form of expression and individualistic style, this character-driven and finely tuned study of character which was given English subtitles in England due to the characters particular Scottish dialect, depicts a shining coming-of-age fable about the loss of innocence and contains a fine score by British composer Rachel Portman. In this compassionately narrated story about adjusting in a world that's easy to be deflected by, but impossible to write off, Lynne Ramsay conceives a nostalgic atmosphere. Somewhere within the sad melancholy that influences the characters, the director is able to captivate lovely images of nature which creates efficient and natural contrasts and her humane insight and directorial talent is evident when she with modest precision goes into the core of a 12-year-old boy's inner states. This remarkable independent film is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, débutant William Eadie's profound acting performance in the role as the rare character James and the fine supporting acting performances. A lyrical and contemplative soul-search which gained, among other awards, the Sutherland Trophy Lynne Ramsay at the British Film Institute Awards in 1999, the Douglas Hickox Award Lynne Ramsay at the 2nd British Independent Film Awards in 1999 and the Carl Foreman Award for Most Promising Newcomer Lynne Ramsay at the 53rd BAFTA Awards in 2000.

alan creswell-laing I know you don't get many comments on here like mine but there is actually a kid in this film who is based on me. When i was little, other kids said i tied a mouse to a balloon and sent it to the moon, although it didn't really happen and the other kids were just twisting things for me, this is where lynne ramsay got the idea for the kid in the film who does the same, i knew lynne well, her brother james, who acts in the film was my very first friend as a small child at school, we grew up together though drifted apart. i don't just like this film, i adore it, it brings back memories for me personally. thank you lynne, and if anyone wants to contact me try my email, it is dostoevsky75@hotmail.com thanks x

paul2001sw-1 The demolition of the Glasgow tenements marked the end of one chapter in the story of poverty in that city; and sadly, the start of another one, as the bleak new schemes that replaced them soon fell into their own downward cycle. Lynne Ramsay's film, 'Ratcatcher', is an utterly unsentimental portrait of those times, though imbued with a measure of hope that only hindsight proves false. As a chronicler of Britain's working classes, Ramsay's style falls somewhere between the realism of Ken Loach and the artistry of Terrence Davies, although arguably lacking the warmth of either. Moreover, at times 'Ratcatcher' seems stylistically overloaded for no particular purpose (the strange fantasy scene with the mouse, for example, seems out of place in the rest of the movie), while when the film gets it right (such as in the opening scenes, which are almost unwatchably harrowing), it's still unclear for what higher aim Ramsay is putting her audience through the emotional wringer. Perhaps if the film was a little less "arty", more conventionally narrative-driven, and with more obvious sympathy, it might actually be more enjoyable to watch. On the other hand, most films which attempt to offer these conventional virtues end up formulaic, sterile and empty, whereas Ramsay's film is raw and in places very powerful. Taking this film together with 'Morvern Callar', her second feature, my feeling is that Ramsay is a director of considerable talent, but maybe still trying, in this early phase of her career, a little too hard. 'Ratcatcher' is not a great film; but hopefully hints at a great one to come.