A large part of the movie's problem is that both the characters and the actors who portray them serve as vehicles for Ramsay's stylistic flourishes.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
A grim, poetic, heart-wrenchingly fine ode to the lost children of Glasgow's forgotten class.
Fresh, original, and arresting.
Ramsay has made a movie in which a universe of hopelessness and decay is penetrated by shafts of light that remake these bleak surroundings in strange and beautiful ways.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
Bleak childhoods make for the best cinema, and Ratcatcher stands at the head of the class.
Has its moments, but overall the effect is uneven.
A brilliant film by Lynne Ramsay.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
One of the most remarkable English-language feature debuts of recent years.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paula Nechak
The film manages to make the ordinary extraordinary. It takes visual risks, tells its story subjectively through images and moves confidently to a stunning, imaginative climax.
Writer-director Ramsay neither sentimentalizes nor garishes up the lost children in this observant and poetic drama.