When Clint Eastwood and Sondra Locke were still an item, Eastwood helped Locke make her directorial debut with this movie through his production company Malpaso. Though Eastwood has typically shown a good batting average when picking projects, this movie joins efforts like "Pink Cadillac" that have you thinking, "What were you thinking, Clint?"
Actually, much of the failure of "Ratboy" falls on Locke's shoulders. The first mistake she made was casting herself in the movie; Locke has never been a good actress, and this movie is no exception. As for her direction, the movie is a mess. Sometimes it's serious in tone, sometimes it's satirical, and sometimes its tone is downright farce. The movie never finds a consistent tone, so it's hard to get involved with what's happening.
It also doesn't help that the characters' actions are more often than not unbelievable, even when the movie tries to be serious. And while the title character can speak, there is surprisingly little effort to get into his head and learn what he's thinking or feeling.
In fairness to Locke, some of the mess was probably not her fault. The story, either through an inadequately written screenplay or (more likely) being hacked up in the editing room, has a number of moments where it's clear that certain plot details are blatantly missing. There are plot threads that seem to start in midstream, or are never resolved at all.
What all this results in is a real mess of a movie, and it's easy to see why Warner Brothers barely released it to theaters.
