This rat movie is basically Moby Dick. OK yeah, it's more The Old Man and the Sea. Oh yeah those are just the loaded references made to superior influences in this film.
It's yuppie class climber versus the rat race and the slow descent into unhappiness and madness that that entails. Your hot wife goes on vacation with daddy without you. Her dad has money and rubs it in your face because you come from nothing. Your kid eats rat poison. You maybe almost cheat on your wife. You drink. Your brownstone gets trashed. Money is hard.
This is a fun flick for sure, and the man vs beast metaphor is used supremely well. The moment Bart (Peter Weller) is offered the "big project" of his dreams, with the money and dehumanizing that inherently represents, the film cuts to the first shot of the rat coming to life in the brownstone and beginning his reign of terror. Subtle? Maybe not, but with killer rats it doesn't need to be.
It doesn't stick the landing though. I never bought the supposed marital tension or his obsession with renovating the brownstone over family time. He seemed like a nice guy pulled a bit thin. I guess that makes him rootable, but also his journey less believable.
The title is killer and the scene where he rattles off all his rat facts to a flabbergasted table full of moneyed people is a treat.
It's yuppie class climber versus the rat race and the slow descent into unhappiness and madness that that entails. Your hot wife goes on vacation with daddy without you. Her dad has money and rubs it in your face because you come from nothing. Your kid eats rat poison. You maybe almost cheat on your wife. You drink. Your brownstone gets trashed. Money is hard.
This is a fun flick for sure, and the man vs beast metaphor is used supremely well. The moment Bart (Peter Weller) is offered the "big project" of his dreams, with the money and dehumanizing that inherently represents, the film cuts to the first shot of the rat coming to life in the brownstone and beginning his reign of terror. Subtle? Maybe not, but with killer rats it doesn't need to be.
It doesn't stick the landing though. I never bought the supposed marital tension or his obsession with renovating the brownstone over family time. He seemed like a nice guy pulled a bit thin. I guess that makes him rootable, but also his journey less believable.
The title is killer and the scene where he rattles off all his rat facts to a flabbergasted table full of moneyed people is a treat.