I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

A little boy hides a awful secret, and also enjoys catching mice. This is a dark, and yet beautifully shot, and extremely well written picture. Scenes like the discovery of the wheat field are truly enchanting. Only downside is that the film is Scottish, and the accents are so thick that understanding what any of the characters are saying is a nearly impossible challenge.

All the praise heaped on this film puzzles me. I found the cinematography to be beautiful, but the storyline, once established, droned on and on with no end in sight. That might have been the point, however. One positive is although it contains the stereotypical drunk father, at least he wasn't physically abusive. You are left with a general sense of pity for many of the characters, but the mood is passive. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be appalled by the poverty or accepting of it. I think the director failed to connect the characters, and in turn kept the audience from connecting. The ending was a leaden mishmash of fantasy and overt symbolism. Not recommended. I understand that this film is semi-biographical, but I felt left out in the cold.

This film about growing up urban in Scotland is masterful in its depiction of life as an unstoppable downward spiral of degradation, social entropy and anomie ending in slime, criminality and despair. Every step of this short and brutal downfall is lovingly illustrated with scenes of filth, coarseness, profanity, idiocy, moral turpitude, ignorance, poverty, intoxication and vermin. It's quite a ride, even though it rather shamelessly borrows a Carl Orff theme that was already made famous by its use in Terrence Malick's "Badlands" for its score and reproduces Mike Leigh's naturalistic atmospheres without the humour and a single glimmer of hope. Should the viewer feel like cleansing his palate after this ordeal, may I recommend two films on the same subject, the poetry and terrors of childhood? They are just as rewarding but without the vomit-inducing sadism and body fluids. They are:(1) "The Steamroller and The Violin"/"Katok i skripka", 1960, URSS, a 42-minute student film by Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the loveliest films ever put together on planet Earth (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053987/), and(2) "The Children Are Watching Us"/"Bambini ci guardano", Vittorio DeSica's first collaboration with neo-realist screenwriter Cesare Zavattini, 1943, an almost forgotten classic, finally on Criterion DVD (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034493/).

I was expecting to hate this movie with a vengeance . I saw Lynne Ramsey's later film MORVERN CALLAR and thought it was the biggest waste of celluloid it had been my displeasure to see so I wasn't expecting anything better with RATCATCHER However I was surprised by Ramsey's feature length debut . Let's be blunt this isn't a movie that will pack the local cineplex on a Friday night , it's very low concept and character driven with a naturalistic style as used by Mike Leigh and Ken Loach . But the beauty of this movie is that it shows the world what the Scots are like . People all over the world genuinely believe we wear kilts and play the bagpipes and worship the Loch Ness Monster . Not true . The Scots can be the friendliest people in the world , we can be the most selfish people in the world , and ( Whisper it ) we can be the most ignorant and drunken people in the world too This extends to the ( Scottish ) world that surrounds the tragic young James . His world is unbearable he looks for love and escape in an unloving miserable world . I guess that's a universal theme but you'd need to be from Scotland to understand this film better . certainly I could relate to it in some parts but like I said it's a million miles removed from a commercial mainstream feel good movie and the use of strong language (The Scots are rather foul mouthed ) alone will turn off a potential audience . You won't confuse RATCATCHER with BRAVEHEART