Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

58 (Untitled)
96 35 Shots of Rum
56 Adam
39 Adventures of Power
66 Afterschool
73 Amreeka
49 Antichrist
76 Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86 Beaches of Agnes, The
71 Big Fan
65 Black Dynamite
76 Bliss
26 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
44 Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81 Bright Star
76 Broken Embraces
70 Bronson
62 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
69 Cold Souls
60 Collapse
82 Cove, The
75 Crude
82 Damned United, The
53 Dare
50 Defamation
67 Departures
70 Earth Days
85 Education, An
55 Endgame
88 Fantastic Mr. Fox
31 Fix
49 Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80 Food, Inc.
xx From Mexico with Love
28 Gentlemen Broncos
72 Good Hair
89 Goodbye Solo
63 Horse Boy, The
74 House of the Devil, The
xx How to Seduce Difficult Women
26 I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
70 It Might Get Loud
46 Killing Kasztner
43 Little Traitor, The
34 Looking for Palladin
80 Lorna's Silence
46 Love Hurts
84 Maid, The
45 Mammoth
75 Messenger, The
55 Missing Person, The
59 More Than a Game
34 Motherhood
62 My One and Only
48 New York, I Love You
66 No Impact Man
26 Oh My God
68 Paranormal Activity
68 Paris
79 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73 Red Cliff
69 September Issue, The
79 Serious Man, A
65 Skin
41 Splinterheads
42 Staten Island
50 Stoning of Soraya M., The
58 Storm
82 Sun, The
49 Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon
73 That Evening Sun
61 Trucker
49 Turning Green
83 U2 3D
45 Uncertainty
67 Visual Acoustics
32 War on Kids
67 Way We Get By, The
65 Wedding Song, The
xx White on Rice
59 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
74 Woman in Berlin, A
43 Women in Trouble
69 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Ratcatcher

EMAILPRINTFirst Look Pictures Releasing

Ratcatcher reviews
76
9.6 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 13 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama

Written by: Lynne Ramsay

Directed by: Lynne Ramsay

Release Date:
Theatrical: October 13, 2000
DVD: August 20, 2002

Running Time: 93 minutes, Color

Origin: UK / France

Language(s): English in Glasgow dialect (with English subtitles)

Summary

RATING: Not rated

Starring William Eadie, Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews, and Michelle Stewart

The story of a twelve year old boy (Eadie) living in working-class Glasgow, Scotland during the 1970's garbage strikes, Ratcatcher portrays the difficulties of his reality and his desire to escape through dreams.

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90

LA Weekly John Patterson

Ramsay has made a movie in which a universe of hopelessness and decay is penetrated by shafts of light that remake these bleak surroundings in strange and beautiful ways.

Read Full Review >
90

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Bleak childhoods make for the best cinema, and Ratcatcher stands at the head of the class.

Read Full Review >
90

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Easily the best directorial debut of the year, and possibly the most mature and haunting film to ever come out of Scotland, Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher is a throat-catching masterpiece of lyricism, observation, and stone-cold realism.

88

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

One of the most remarkable English-language feature debuts of recent years.

88

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Fresh, original, and arresting.

83

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

The film manages to make the ordinary extraordinary. It takes visual risks, tells its story subjectively through images and moves confidently to a stunning, imaginative climax.

Read Full Review >
80

Time Richard Corliss

Writer-director Ramsay neither sentimentalizes nor garishes up the lost children in this observant and poetic drama.

Read Full Review >
80

Variety David Rooney

There’s a light touch in evidence, balancing the bleakness with odd lyrical moments and unexpected humor and tenderness that infuse the gentle drama with a bracing freshness.

Read Full Review >
80

Film.com Robert Horton

The bleakness of the material ought to make Ratcatcher a depressing experience, yet Ramsay's power as an image-crafter transforms this grim universe.

80

Village Voice Amy Taubin

The most audacious debut feature of the year.

Read Full Review >
78

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

An inner-city tragedy that plays its story simply, sorrowfully, and beautifully.

Read Full Review >
75

Miami Herald Marta Barber

A brilliant film by Lynne Ramsay.

75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Ramsay's child actors are nonprofessionals who can only express what they feel — which gives her film an unusual degree of emotional authenticity.

75

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A grim, poetic, heart-wrenchingly fine ode to the lost children of Glasgow's forgotten class.

75

Portland Oregonian Barry Johnson

A sense of claustrophobia emerges, increases and colonizes the film.

70

TV Guide Ken Fox

For all its harsh realism, the film flows like a dream, albeit a highly unpleasant one.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The power of Ratcatcher comes from its hushed lyricism and Ms. Ramsay's talent for conveying emotional complexity.

Read Full Review >
60

Salon.com Charles Taylor

A large part of the movie's problem is that both the characters and the actors who portray them serve as vehicles for Ramsay's stylistic flourishes.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Has its moments, but overall the effect is uneven.

50

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

When it's not awful, it's dull.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

gail k gave it a10:
This is an amazing debut art film about poverty and the beauty of the human spirit to find happiness in difficult places.

Ian W. gave it a 9:
Wonderful, understated debut. not to be missed.

Jennifer B. gave it a 10:
Hard to watch, but a thought-provoking, intense film.

Caleb P. gave it a 10:
If i were to make a film it would be this one. honest portrait of working class britain under Tory rule in the 1970's.

Christelle de C. gave it a 10:
This film was raw and honest. above that, the shots were absolutely beautiful.

Lenore S. gave it a 10:
Excellent! pace is slow and requires you to think but the lighting, characters, lines, etc. - very original filmmaking and beautiful style.

Robin D. gave it a 10:
Loved this movie.

Read more user comments >

Popular on CBS sites: SEC Football | NFL | Video Game Cheats | iPhone | Video Game Reviews | Notebooks | Antivirus Software

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use