RATCATCHER

Written and directed by Lynne Ramsay

William Eadie
Tommy Flanagan
Mandy Matthews
Lynne Ramsay, Jr.

Premiere date: May 13, 1999 (Cannes Film Festival)

Ratcatcher portrays life in a Glasgow housing project during the 1973 garbageworkers strike as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old James Gillespie. 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with his increasing lack of communication with his drunken football-loving father, causes James to become increasingly withdrawn, fantasizing about his family moving to a newly constructed apartment complex at the city limits on the edge of a beautiful, golden field of grain.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.

Best British Films: 8. Ratcatcher

NOTE: This post contains a few spoilers. If you've any plans to see Ratcatcher, skip this entry until you have.

Director Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher explores the damaging effects that poverty and desperation can have on a child's development.

In the first ten minutes of the film, Ramsay effectively sets you up and knocks you down. You're introduced to a young man as he bickers with his mother, and you think you've met the film's protagonist. Minutes later, he's accidentally drowned while playing with another young boy in a filthy nearby canal. This boy is the main character.

Ratcatcher takes place during the garbage strike in Glasgow in the mid-70s. Rats and mice abound, and life is not easy for the poor adolescent James and his family. William Eadie as James is a wonderful and natural talent, playing a young man who grows up in poverty, deals with profound guilt, and is more and more neglected by his drunken father.

The film is visually striking from frame one. The first shot is a haunting one of a boy playing in his mother's curtains, wrapped up and seemingly smothered in the cheap lace. It's a beautiful but disturbing image, the first of many.

James fantasizes about his family moving to a new house on the edge of a field, and has a couple of friends to pass the time, but what truly defines him and his childhood is the poverty he lives in and its terrible repercussions. Ramsay lets filth and beauty coincide in her feature debut, and the outcome is marvelous.

Apart from the tough subject matter, Ratcatcher was a joy to behold. Lynne Ramsay's film is wonderfully arresting and will stick with me for a long time. ***1/2/4