Esse Rato é um Espanto

When the father of a Dublin family is transformed into a rat, the family dynamic changes not at all! The daughter is still Daddy's Little Girl, the son -- Pius! -- is piously creepy, his vocation to the priesthood notwithstanding, and the mother alternates (as usual) between wild-eyed outrage and sentimental tears. Writer, director and cast all seem to be making the same movie -- a dissection of some of the more peculiar aspects of the Irish "character" with some of the insight of Huston's/Joyce's THE DEAD -- and even more laughs. Imelda Staunton is devastatingly funny as the mother who views her husband's transformation as just the latest in a series of crosses she's had to bear.

Certainly this movie is not for all tastes, and I can imagine that some viewers would be simply baffled. It helps if you DO understand (sort of) why anyone would name their son "Pius." But if you're Irish-American and have mixed feelings (are there any other kind?) about your "heritage," just sit back and enjoy!

Rat

Hubert Flynn (Pete Postlethwaite) has had a hard day on his bread delivery round. and so, stops off for a pint on the way home to Kimmage – to wife Conchita (Imelda Staunton), daughter Marietta (Kerry Condon) and his saintly son Pius (Andrew Lovern). Inevitably one pint becomes a ‘few'. He's also under the weather. Daisy Farrell's (Veronica Duffy) expert diagnosis from the snug is Asiatic flu. Back home, with Conchita giving him some of her mind, Hubert wants only to go to bed. But Hubert hasn't the flu. There he metamorphoses into a rat.

Initially normality reigns in the Flynn household in this freak circumstance of Hubert as rat. He's a bit picky about his food and the family unsure of rat habits, but widely read Uncle Matt (Frank Kelly) proves expert on all things rodent.

But journalist Phelim Spratt (David Wilmot) worms his way into the home with a plan for a book, a film, a book of the film … However the satanic entrepreneurial approach is a Pandora's box and sets the film off in glorious chase of the punchline.

Wesley Burrows' screenplay is in the tradition of the farce – a comic creation built around exaggeration of character and event, extremes of personality and occasion; soaked in satire and nonsense; action-driven, leading to the climactic joke that is the point of the piece.

But the punchline is not the whole point. Farce should also have a point of view. Without unveiling the joke, how ought we to respond to ‘freaks', ‘aliens in our midst'? Burn them? Expel them? Exploit them? Accept them?

Director Steve Barron and his cast carry off Burrows' farce with verve (with Imelda Stauntion in splendid form) according to the rules of the genre – including hilariously developing the moral debates.

Love every minute of it. Perhaps a little too irish in the dialect but awesome in story telling. Despite the fact there is an A** in here, kids should have no problem with it. It's so weird that it tells it as if this is all normal. Gee so your father turned into a rat. Something normal for ye.

9/10

Quality: 10/10 (kicka** camera shots) Entertainment: 9/10 Replayable: 10/10

When their father Hubert suddenly turns into a rat, his family don't really know how to react, apart from putting him in a cage. When a journalist convinces them to write a book, he moves in and starts to mould their emotions to exploit the situation for fame and fortune.

The key to this film is in the imaginative set up and the funny telling rather than the actual plot itself. In terms of plot the film runs out of steam a little towards the end where it seems to realise that plotting hasn't been the main driving force of the film. What does drive the film is that it is laugh out loud funny almost all the way through. If you like the sort of Irish humour and characters then you'll like this a lot. The idea of being turned into a rat isn't really explained but this doesn't really matter.

The characters are all excellent, although Postlethwaite is really little more than cameo for most of the film, his part being played rather well by various white rats! Staunton is the strongest character and has captured the hard love of an Irish mother very well – focused on the practicals despite circumstances (a priest is called to the rat and she throws it in the washing machine so his dirty fur won't shame the family, `it's ok, he's on wool' she assures a concerned family member). Her character is hilarious throughout. Kelly (Father Jack) is strong in a small role, but Wilmot's character is less clear but seems to be the one that the plot is riding on. The kids' roles are pretty funny and the support cast of Irish stereotypes all do what they are expected to do.

When I watched this movie on TV I had never heard of it and I wonder how many people have actually seen it, it's a shame because this is really funny and worth seeing despite the fact that the actual plot itself is not as strong as the laughs deserve. Overall this is very funny throughout if you like the Father Ted style of slightly exaggerated Irish humour.

This movie is despicable. It's bad-humored. It's extremely painful. It's discouraging. I went to bed so disappointed and angry I thought I'd have night terrors.

It could have been so good! I don't know how you mess up a plot the way they did! The crew had to consist of the least funny people in the world! There isn't a single character and not a single joke.

It's baffling!