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Poster for Ratcatcher

Ratcatcher

1999 · 1h 34m · Not Rated Drama
Directed by Lynne Ramsay

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Overview

James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
85%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Some may find such wrenching realities shocking, if not reprehensible. Others may glean meaning in their starkness -- a meaning that transcends the film's despair with the power of its truth.

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle
Fresh

Ramsay's imaginative shot-making gifts make for a sublime result, creating a different sort of magical realism than we're used to seeing.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Fresh

In any good film, the opening shot is telling, and Ratcatcher is a very good film.

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail
Rotten

Lynne Ramsay bears watching. But when we talk about advances in the art of movies we have to be talking about leaps of feeling, not just leaps of technique.

Charles Taylor, Salon.com
Fresh

Ratcatcher goes straight to the head.

Marta Barber, Miami Herald

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