Rating: 
Summary: How perfect can a film be?
Review: I LOVE this movie. It comes across as a film about loss of childhood, working class struggles, and all human attempts to escape. Kind of a downer, I guess. But it's the style of the film that really brings the subject matter to life. It's emotionally stunning. The characters feel real. It's immaculate in its art and storytelling. Every frame is amazing -- rich visuals in a starkly composed setting. It's a beautifully realised cinematic work of art. I want to know all about Lynne Ramsay after watching this film. This Criterion DVD features an interview along with 3 of her earlier shorts. It also includes subtitles to aid in my lame American grasp of the Scottish accent. This is definitely a film worth repeated viewings. Ramsay is poised for a brilliant career in filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: How perfect can a film be?
Review: I LOVE this movie. It comes across as a film about loss of childhood, working class struggles, and all human attempts to escape. Kind of a downer, I guess. But it's the style of the film that really brings the subject matter to life. It's emotionally stunning. The characters feel real. It's immaculate in its art and storytelling. Every frame is amazing -- rich visuals in a starkly composed setting. It's a beautifully realised cinematic work of art. I want to know all about Lynne Ramsay after watching this film. This Criterion DVD features an interview along with 3 of her earlier shorts. It also includes subtitles to aid in my lame American grasp of the Scottish accent. This is definitely a film worth repeated viewings. Ramsay is poised for a brilliant career in filmmaking.
Rating:
Summary: a bit "drecht", but brilliantly thought provoking
Review: I was warned in advance that "Ratcatcher" was a bit "drecht" (Glaswegian for gloomy). That is undeniable, but it is also a very sensitive, thought provoking piece. Set in Glasgow in 1973, the film explores various themes, such as the main character James' guilt over the accidental drowning of a friend, his uneasy relationship with his drunken father and his innocent friendship with a teenage hooker. It manages to weave together all these stories without seeming heavyhanded. The acting is brilliant,particularly that of the child actors, most of whom had never acted before. The adult actors are brilliant, too, especially Tommy Flanagan, who plays James' often drunk "Da" (the scene where he berates James for innocently letting council inspectors into the family's apartment and tells him that "It'll be all your f--g fault" if they lose their coveted council house is an assessment of everything that is wrong with this family.)
The subtitles were interesting. I understand the Glaswegian dialect (by virtue of having a Glaswegian mother), but it was interesting to see how the dialogue was transferred onto the screen. I noticed that the words were transposed on the screen as is, not translated into standard English (i.e. "No, ye cannae" rather than "No you can't"). It actually was better that way.
The ending is ambiguous, but that's keeps what the film in your mind. It also ends on a poignant note. The final scene is the only time in the film that James smiles. All in all, I would not recommend this to someone who wants cheering up, but if you can handle the "down side" it is a marvellous production.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking
Review: I've been haunted by this film since I saw it in the theatres two years ago, and I am grateful that Criterion has given it the care and craft that the film deserves in its video release. The DVD is a gorgeous transfer that also includes three of Lynne Ramsey's short films and other extras.As for the film, the final scenes leave me breathless in a way I've not experienced since Breaking the Waves. Poetic, moving, unsentimental, and transcendent.
Rating:
Summary: Lovely
Review: If you read reviews for a plot synopsis, you likely won't like this film, much less this review. In the end, who cares about plot, if the direction, performances, set design, cinematography, and production quality are good enough? This is not a plot-less venture; rather, it's a true-to-life, realistic-but-lyrical, coming-of-age exploration. But, regardless of plot, there's a beautiful story here, filmed with the exstiquisite eye of Lynne Ramsey. If you like the 400 Blows (I don't, personally), or any other realistic, depressing tale of a child's life, you will love this film. The dialect is so thick that subtitles are provided, and the cinematogrpahy so stunningly bleak that you'll find it hard to drag your eyes from the image to the words. I can't say enough positive things about this gorgeous film. A true European indie feature, not the semi-indie crap Miramax passes off these days. The DVD comes with 3 remarkable shorts (okay--two greats and one unbearable), and is really a MUST for wanna-be film students (I'm one, so trust me!)
Rating: 
Summary: Poetic, not sentimental, Scottish film.
Review: Lynne Ramsay's unhurried debut is, let's get right down to it, quite beautiful. This is one of the most exciting first features I've seen in recent memory. Set in a Glasgow housing project during the 1970s sanitation strikes, "Ratcatcher" presents a perspective of life through the eyes of children. Now this might sound kind of sappy, but it isn't at all. There is nothing cute about "Ratcatcher" whatsoever. Ramsay's writing and direction is quite poetic, but not sentimental, and relies on atmosphere (thanks to Alwin Kuchler's photography and some good soundtrack choices) over melodrama, tragedy, and tear-jerking. Ramsay shows a genuine affection for each and every one of the film's major characters, while at the same time showing their faults, failures, and weaknesses. Differentiation between children and adults seems irrelevent - in "Ratcatcher" they are all imperfect, incomplete people. There is a strong stylistic similarity between "Ratcatcher" and Hamony Korine's "Gummo," both films focusing mainly on "damaged" children and an impoverished community tainted by some unspoken looming dread. But where "Gummo" at times seemed (to me anyway) to resort to shock tactics, or at least hopeless grotesqueries, in its portrait of humanity, "Ratcatcher"'s tone is more one of naïve fascination skillfully captured, a tone not unlike that of the still underrated Terrence Malick. A perfect companion to this style is Ramsay's use of a number of child non-actors, who she directs flawlessly. One thing that really struck me about "Ratcatcher" was that it seemed as though the film's climaxes were all dispensed very early in the film. Within five minutes we witness the death that will haunt our protagonist, James, for the rest of his life. An early sequence in which James discovers some unfinished suburb houses includes a crescendo-ing scene which another director might well have ended the film with. After these moments Ramsay finds a comfortable sense of stasis for the film and stays with it. This is not to say it gets boring or less important by any means - the later portions of the film are probably the strongest. The film's ending is far less climactic than those earlier moments, which is good I think. But the neatness of a reasonably happy (though properly uncertain) ending all the same comes as a bit jarring after the virtual non-movement of the preceding half hour. In any case, you'll be the judge. The lush Criterion DVD edition of "Ratcatcher" comes with a wealth of bonus features. In addition to the standard Theatrical Trailer, the DVD also features a fair-lengthed interview with Ramsay (in which Ramsay name-checks Malick, David Lynch, and Robert Bresson as sources of inspiration) and Ramsay's three impressive award-winning short films (where the influence of Jane Campion seems very clear). Of the three, "Gasman" is far and away the best. In fact, I almost like "Gasman" as much as, and possibly more than, "Ratcatcher."
Rating:
Summary: Haunting... Brilliant.
Review: Poetry on screen, this is a grim but beautiful story about working class family life in 1970's England, focusing on the daily escapades of a young boy as he maneuvers through the twists of existence and the apparent inescapability of his place in life. Feature debut from Lynne Ramsey, whose newest film "Morvern Callar".
Rating: 
Summary: Great Story, But Im Getting Tired of The Shakey Camera
Review: ramsey, with her background in photography, falls into a ever-growing trend in independent cinema. Ratcatcher comes complete with shakey steady cam shots, ultra-photograhic framing and dis-jointed editing. The effect these have is ultimately gorgeous, however these techniques are beginning to be, for me at least, a tad bit played out. They do less to service the story and do more to glorify the director and D.P. The story is handled well: she lets it develope slowly, and she doesnt force any moments on the viewer. All in all this is a great stroy and a beautifully shot film, but doesnt really push any visual boundries like some would like to believe.
Rating:
Summary: A Life in Garbage...
Review: Ratcatcher takes place in the early 70s in the slums of Glasgow during a sanitation strike. The film begins with an accident that triggers a socio-economic adventure through the eyes of a pre-adolescent boy by the name James. Throughout the story James encounters many different characters such as an unwanted girl, a gang of oppressing teenage boys, an animal loving neighborhood boy, and a drunk father. These characters help lift the clouds out of his social understanding of the world. Overall, this film is a heartbreaking story about James coming to age, which is depicted with honest clarity. In the end, the audience will remain thinking and wondering.
Rating:
Summary: GRIM BUT LIFE-ENHANCING
Review: Set in a Glasgow, Scotland, slum during the infamous 1973 national trash collectors' strike, RATCATCHER is the stunning first feature of writer-director Lynne Ramsay. Unexpected, evanescent images make real the dreams of hope that battle brutality and guilt in the harsh, abject world of James, a poor adolescent boy who accidentally caused the death of a friend. What sounds unrelentingly dark and depressing is not totally bleak. This is a richly realized film that is haunting and even life-enhancing with surprising splashes of humor. The nice looking transfer also includes an interview with Ramsay as well as three of her early short films.
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