Rat

Dubliner everyman Hubert Flynn (Pete Postlethwaite) has three loves: betting on the ponies, downing a few drafts of Guinness at the local pub, and placating his disapproving wife Conchita (Imelda Staunton). In the latter he fails miserably, especially after he returns home one night after an extended pub crawl and promptly (and inexplicably, as far as the plot goes) turns into a fat white rat. Hubert's unflappable better half soon regains her stride, though, and what follows is a series of surreal rat-ventures as Hubert's eccentric family, with the questionable counsel of a local reporter, try to make the best out of their shared predicament. This furry take on Kafka's Metamorphosis would have made an engaging short, but when padded out to feature length its one-joke premise is worn awfully thin. While all the technical pieces are in place--a fine cast, headed up by the always reliable Postlethwaite, and capable direction by music video grad Steve Barron--this forced farce, as realized by British TV scribe Wesley Burrowes, has little satiric bite, and even less humor, and is best avoided. (S. C. Sickles)