Rat is a 2000 comedy film directed by Steve Barron and starring Imelda Staunton and Pete Postlethwaite. The film focuses on the transformation of a working-class man into a rat and how his family copes with the startling change. The film's scenario is partly based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Plot After his usual night of drinking at the local pub, Hubert Flynn (Pete Postlethwaite) returns home and transforms into a rat. Hubert's family each have different views on him now that he became a rodent. His wife Conchita (Imelda Staunton) thinks that this change is supposed to be a lesson to Hubert and that the reason he transformed is his own fault. Their son Pius (Andrew Lovern), destined for a religious life, feels that because his father is now an animal, his family should kill him. Their daughter Marietta (Kerry Condon) feels that the rat is still her father and that they should treat him with love and respect. After hearing the news of a man changing into a rat on the local radio, ghostwriter Phelim Spratt (David Wilmot) convinces Conchita to write a book of the story. Because Phelim wants to write about Conchita's bravery and the family's loyalty to Hubert in the face of adversity, he suggests that they take Hubert out to the pub and bookie to see his friends and to show the public that they are proud of him. Conchita sends for her brother, Matt (Frank Kelly), whom she describes as "a rock of sense". After telling the family all of the changes they will have to undergo, including Hubert's poor hygiene, unemployment, and unusual diet, Matt feels that Hubert would be more comfortable in a maggot factory with other rats. This decision is further solidified after Hubert bites Conchita on the finger.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“[city laws were] designed to penalize homeowners for failing to take steps to prevent and control rodents”
— Mayor Eric Adams, Fined For Rats on His Property, Takes on City Hall (William K. Rashbaum and Dana Rubinstein Dec. 6, 2022)
“Rats and mice are not generally regarded as pets, but as pests; they have few defenders. Yet the pain a rat or a mouse feels is every bit as real as that of any pet. In laboratories, they suffer, as anybody who has heard them moan, cry, whimper and even scream knows. The experimenters dissimulate about this by insisting that they are merely vocalising.”
— Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (London: Vintage, 1996. , Conclusion, p. 217.
“If a rat is a good model for your emotional life, you're in big trouble.”
— Robert Sapolsky, "Stress, Neurodegeneration and Individual Differences", a lecture at Washington State University (10 October 2001)
“How now? a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, 4

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

Not who you're looking for? Others named Rat: several genera of rodents with common names similar to "rat" · 1st sign of Chinese zodiac · Newspaper · village in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Overview

Rat is a 2000 comedy film directed by Steve Barron and starring Imelda Staunton and Pete Postlethwaite. The film focuses on the transformation of a working-class man into a rat and how his family copes with the startling change. The film's scenario is partly based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Plot After his usual night of drinking at the local pub, Hubert Flynn (Pete Postlethwaite) returns home and transforms into a rat. Hubert's family each have different views on him now that he became a rodent. His wife Conchita (Imelda Staunton) thinks that this change is supposed to be a lesson to Hubert and that the reason he transformed is his own fault. Their son Pius (Andrew Lovern), destined for a religious life, feels that because his father is now an animal, his family should kill him. Their daughter Marietta (Kerry Condon) feels that the rat is still her father and that they should treat him with love and respect. After hearing the news of a man changing into a rat on the local radio, ghostwriter Phelim Spratt (David Wilmot) convinces Conchita to write a book of the story. Because Phelim wants to write about Conchita's bravery and the family's loyalty to Hubert in the face of adversity, he suggests that they take Hubert out to the pub and bookie to see his friends and to show the public that they are proud of him. Conchita sends for her brother, Matt (Frank Kelly), whom she describes as "a rock of sense". After telling the family all of the changes they will have to undergo, including Hubert's poor hygiene, unemployment, and unusual diet, Matt feels that Hubert would be more comfortable in a maggot factory with other rats. This decision is further solidified after Hubert bites Conchita on the finger.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Rat is a 2000 comedy film directed by Steve Barron and starring Imelda Staunton and Pete Postlethwaite. The film focuses on the transformation of a working-class man into a rat and how his family copes with the startling change. The film's scenario is partly based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

Notable quotes

“[city laws were] designed to penalize homeowners for failing to take steps to prevent and control rodents”
— Mayor Eric Adams, Fined For Rats on His Property, Takes on City Hall (William K. Rashbaum and Dana Rubinstein Dec. 6, 2022)
“Rats and mice are not generally regarded as pets, but as pests; they have few defenders. Yet the pain a rat or a mouse feels is every bit as real as that of any pet. In laboratories, they suffer, as anybody who has heard them moan, cry, whimper and even scream knows. The experimenters dissimulate about this by insisting that they are merely vocalising.”
— Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (London: Vintage, 1996. , Conclusion, p. 217.
“If a rat is a good model for your emotional life, you're in big trouble.”
— Robert Sapolsky, "Stress, Neurodegeneration and Individual Differences", a lecture at Washington State University (10 October 2001)
“How now? a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!”
— William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, 4