City Rats (2009)

Eight lost souls search for solutions to problems ranging from finding a better suicide method, to defeating creative block, to losing their virginity.

Director:

Steve Kelly

Writer:

Simon Fantauzzo

Stars:

Tamer Hassan, Ray Panthaki, Susan Lynch

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tamer Hassan	...	Jim
Ray Panthaki	...	Dean
Susan Lynch	...	Gina
Danny Dyer	...	Pete
Kenny Doughty	...	Olly
James Lance	...	Chris
MyAnna Buring	...	Sammy (as Myanna Buring)
Natasha Williams	...	Carol
Richard Mylan	...	Ash
Jake Canuso	...	Marco Harper
Vyelle Croom	...	Daryl
Philip Herbert	...	Cowboy John
Keir Mills	...	Kyle (as Kier Mills)
Ian Webster	...	Colin
Robin Goodchild	...	Keith

Storyline

Eight haunted people meet and fall apart - looking for redemption in each other. Jim is throwing watermelons off his office roof. He's testing the effect for a possible suicide. But then there is Sue on an adjacent roof about to jump herself. They meet, delay their departure and set off searching for other ways out than down. Sue's ex-boyfriend, Dean, is struggling with his creativity. His paintings are getting panned and his poetry ripped apart. He needs a muse - and who better than Gina, the experimental prostitute with dodgy legs who lives next door. However, Dean soon finds out that Gina never does anything for free. After a short fling with Dean, Olly is lost in a world of sexual confusion when forced to look after his deaf-mute brother Chris for the day. Olly discovers that not only does Chris has gay feelings too, but is more comfortable with them than he is. They embark on a searing quest through Soho's gay community to help Chris loose his virginity. But no-one has more to ...

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Plot Keywords:

gay | virginity | deaf mute | redemption | watermelon | 

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Taglines:

Life isn't like it is in the movies...

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 April 2009 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Face Films, Scanner-Rhodes Productions, Urban Way Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital (Dolby 5.1)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Loose Women: Episode #13.160 (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Swamped"
Written by Mark Maclaine
Performed by The Silence
Courtesy of The Silence Corporation

User Reviews

A bit uneven maybe, but still an impressive character study

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

London is a city full of people, moving about in droves, with little time for each other, facing straight ahead and barely noticing each other exists. From the top looking down below, people might well appear like 'rats', scurrying about to whatever garbage bin has attracted their attention. No one appears to have the time to look in the more solitary corners and see the sorry state of affairs going on there. In short, it's a terrible place to be lonely and stared down at. Yet the main characters presented in City Rats, each one linked to each other in some way which we find out about as the story goes on, prompt the sort of contempt which makes us inflict this grim fate on them but as events roll on, we are forced to see them in a different light and see less judgemental reasoning for how things turned out like they did for them. Starting with the ex drug dealer trying to buckle down to an honest living who is approached by the mother of a guy he used to know to help track him down, we move on to a wife beater separated from his family who whiles away his time dropping water melons from tall buildings and sharing phone sex with a crippled prostitute who finds herself the interest of a poet who lives on the floor below her. Meanwhile, a man takes his deaf, autistic brother on a tour around seedy Soho to help him lose his virginity and come to terms with his homosexuality.

Maybe we don't have the best actors to play them, but this is still a very impressive character study, that has a clever use of atmosphere, mood and soundtrack to engross us in what's going on. The whole 'water melons dropping from a building' thing is a bit weird and not explained properly but Tamer Hassan's character develops the most, with his relationship with a similarly suicidal young woman which has a devastating, abrupt conclusion. A small film with some flaws, but enough going on beneath the surface to make it shine. ****