User Reviews

Im still not convinced about the way of telling the story and really make me a little bit frustrated: stop telling us and just let us see. That break of the fourth walls is really not convincing at least for me and break what the movie its all bout: visual. So its kind of a parasite to hear and see the same action at the same time and its kind of too much in my opinion.

But as the others little short of Wes Anderson what really make it pleasant are the visuals and the set design and that particular mise en scene during the fight between the rat and the rat catcher. Of course the story is pretty stylised and dont represent reality but i really enjoyed it anyway despite my own personal preferences and the style is definitely here.

Another of the three shorter Wes Anderson Roald Dahl adaptations made to accompany The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Rat Catcher shows both director and late writer at their most wonderfully macabre. It's a slight tale about the eponymous Rat Catcher, who freely admits that in order to understand his prey, he has had to become very much like them... The Rat Catcher is a black comedy with a fairly disgusting denouement, and unlike the accompanying stories, it isn't really about anything, it's just a gleefully unpleasant and twisted vignette. Anderson has great fun, with more of the typical deliberately stylised sets, albeit no actual rats. At one point, the Rat Catcher pulls a rat from one pocket and a ferret from the other, in both cases Ralph Fiennes simply miming with his empty hands to show their presence. Later, he uses an obvious rat prop, which is later brought to life by animation.

Fiennes is brilliantly seedy as the Rat Catcher, and also briefly appears as Dahl again too, joining in the narration during a particularly tense moment when the Rat Catcher kills a rat with his teeth. Richard Ayoade and Rupert Friend join him, and in stark contrast to The Swan, this sees the three actors exchanging dialogue, although there's still a narrator essentially reading the story, in this case mostly Ayoade, in character. Overall, The Rat Catcher is the most playful of the four shorts, albeit playful in the disturbingly surreal way that Dahl excelled at.

Wes Anderson continues in, what very well might be, his most productive year yet - having released a most anticipated feature film, as well as several interesting short films.

In this film, he explores a classic sort of gothic tale in interesting fashion, and does so gracefully as ever.

The actors, as always in Wes Anderson's films, great and legendary. Very impressive, and all do an incredible job.

The script is ever witty, not that much in terms of frightning, which is not what he set out to do, but more in terms of style and susbtance.

The cinematography, cutting and editing, stellar as always, very much in tune with Anderson's style, and very beautifully put together.

Overall, very much a recommended gem, for any lover of film and every fan of Wes Anderson!

Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade & Rupert Friend star in this really weird tale which seems to be about a couple of mechanics who hire an exterminator who tries to convince them that the best way to catch a rat is to pretty much become one. Thank god this is only 17 minutes long as if it were any longer I'd have lost interest even faster than I did! It's such a mind boggling & mind numbingly boring story that if I were you I would completely give it miss & find anything else to watch! It's just a typical Wes Anderson style tale, he's obviously obsessed with trying to be different but he's just gone way too far again!