BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Allissa .Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

merklekranz First, "Rat" gets extra points for a very original screenplay. The fine acting is what carries this unique comedy, because the only way "Rat" works is if the characters come across as dead serious, which they do. Any decent into slapstick would have been disastrous. Another plus is the unique camera angles giving a rat's point of view. Different reactions of the various family members, to what is obviously a highly unusual situation, fuels this dark comedy. In order for a black comedy to work, it must be outrageous, not mean spirited, and deadly serious, and "Rat succeeds on all counts. I liked this clever and highly original comedy. - MERK

Bockharn 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!

cinemabitch This film was very funny and clever throughout. The characters react to an outlandish situation as if it were a normal (but rare) occurence. I laughed throughout at the characters and dialogue. Draw yourself a pint and watch this one with a wink of Irish Blarny. However the accents can be a bit thick and my girlfriend required the use of the closed captioning.

feargus RatHubert 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.