Rats & Rabbits (2000) Reviews

In this offbeat comedy-drama, based on the play Beyond Mozambique by George F. Walker, six desperate characters try to sort out their next move in a dangerous inner-city neighborhood after the brutal murder of the mayor throws the city into chaos. Rita (Carole Laure) is a former porn star trying to re-establish herself as a performance artist; Rocco (Nigel Bennett) is a slightly mad doctor who performs odd experiments with organs from the recently deceased; Olga (Veronique Flaguais) is Rocco's Russian spouse who is none too happy with her husband's recent work; Petru (Paul Ahmarani) is a boy from Romania who has been adopted by Rocco and Olga (and has a strange interest in the body parts Rocco collects); a reporter (Andrew Tarbet) has uncovered some disturbing information about the mayor; and a police officer (Tom Bernett) tries to sort out what's going on when he happens by on horseback. Rats & Rabbits was directed by Lewis Furey, a former composer whose wife is leading lady Carole Laure; while Furey composed the score for several of Laure's films, this time around she returned the favor, assembling the film's techno-meets-classical background music. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi