This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
I Smell a Rat
Plot Overview
The narrator tells us:
“A million people visit Los Angeles every summer. Our blue
skies, sea and attractions often keep them here for good.”
Child star Jack Waters played Gabby Grazer the fat kid on the
Mickey Meyers Show. When the show folded, Jack (Robert Forster)
stayed in town becoming a professional game show contestant hoping
for a big win but settling for small potato payoffs.
Moira Kennedy (Rose McGowan) survived a modeling
scam in Japan, traveled the world over (“everywhere”),
and ended with an attempted suicide in L.A. Jack rescued her and now she's an exotic
stripper “working her way through college” with the
other girls. She has “more moves than Bobby Fisher.”
Country rube Henry Fields (Kip
Pardue) arrives at the Broadcast Studios on a tour bus. He
speaks with a Texas twang and flashes a large wad of cash. Jack and
Moira take him under their wing and are like to get themselves
on the contract this green hunk of innocence is about to sign with
some shady execs. He is wife-shopping in this land of pretty
women and thinks he's found his destiny in Moira. Moira, though,
has her cap set for Jack who's moving too slow for her, at least he
was before he encountered competition.
Now he's been jump-started into a “foolproof” million dollar scheme. He dumps out a soda can from a six-pack and inserts a store-bought white rat pup (“I got him little enough so he could fit.”) He's feeding it in there until it reaches adult size unable to exit through the flip top. Then he'll drown it from another can of soda and sue the company when he discovers a dead rat in his drink. Yuck!
Ideology
There's a special section in the
middle of the Bible called the wisdom books. They're layered by
perspective. First comes the book of Job, a long dispute that
concludes God's wisdom is above man's and he doesn't tell us
everything. Then comes the book of Psalms presenting wisdom
lyrically. Proverbs is next, for the most part the wisdom a father
passes on to his son, but the next-to-the-last chapter (30) is
street smarts that one's friends may convey, and the last chapter
(31) is the wisdom a mother passes on to her son. Then comes
Ecclesiastes preaching wisdom got by experience. Finally, there's
the Song of Solomon, the wisdom spouted by someone in love.
“Roads to Riches” presents the street smarts one guy might pass on to his buddy. As, (Prov. 30:1) “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal.” Agur is hardly the sharpest knife in the drawer. (Prov. 30:2-3) “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy.” This is comparable to that rat lacking in rodent learning and human training.
(Prov. 30:4)
“Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath
gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a
garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is
his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?”
The rat is can-bound, doesn't know anyone who's felt the wind
on his whiskers or water beneath his toes. It doesn't know the name
of the god who made its caniverse or the brand name of the can he's
in—Sharp Cola is written on the outside. For
that matter neither does the audience the former although there is
product placement in the movie of: Coca-Cola™, mystery flask, best scotch, cold beer, and whiskey,
(Prov. 30:5-6) “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” There develops some interspecies communication:
Human: “Last meal.” Rodent: Squeak. Human (a little later): “Showtime!” Rodent: Squeak, squeak.Close enough.
(Prov. 30:7) “Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die.” There are two things the rat wants before its demise. (Prov. 30:8-9) “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” It doesn't want to be duped. It doesn't want to be drowned in soda or ignored to starve. It wants its steady diet. This is like the tending from the AI noocytes in a Greg Bear sci-fi novel:
The food appeared on top of a waist-high, grayish spongy cylinder at the end of a high-walled cul-de-sac.Suzy looked down on the food on the plate, reached out to touch the apparent fried chicken, and drew her finger back slowly. The food was warm, the cup of coffee was steaming, and it looked perfectly normal. Not once had she been served something she didn't like, and not once had there been too much, or too little. (232)
Moira is
faced with three potential options. She can stay the same getting
older until her tips and then her gigs dry up. Or she can marry the
rich unknown cowboy who has the means to take care of her in style,
with “barbecued steaks, cold beer, corn on the cob and
chitlins.” But Jack says he is too nice, the kind who end up
on the 11:00 news. He compares him to Martin Luther King. Henry led
an integrated party in singing “Kumbaya,” true, but
MLK was a notorious
womanizer and Henry is shown having had premarital sex, which
wouldn't square with the “Christian TV that took over the
show.” Also MLK
turned out to be a plagiarist, and it seems like Henry is a
counterfeiter. Jack is the third option (maybe) for Moira with
whom if he makes one good score, she can live cheaply in Mexico.
(Prov. 30:10) “Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee, and thou be found guilty.” Jack thinks the game is rigged and makes a fool of himself on live TV telling the host so.
Production Values
“” (2002) was written and directed by Michelle Gallagher. It stars Robert Forster, Rose McGowan and Kip Pardue. Pardue delivers! It had an exceptional cast.
MPA rated it R for language. The strippers stopped short of the altogether. Production was solid, acting was better, writing was clever. Characters would shout at each other down a corridor with heads peeking out to showcase the dissension. We got rodent-eye views looking out through the can aperture to help us sympathize with the sorry rat confined inside. The net result was we were on its side. Runtime is 1½ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The game show questions required a modicum of theology to answer one of them. Not even a dirty rat is an atheist who'd think the can manufactured itself from the junkyard, but the top of the can contains recycling information. This indie film keeps one on his toes for not following a standard Hollywood arc. It should appeal to drama fans. The humor is dry.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture was quoted from the Authorized Version, Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Bear, Greg. Blood Music. © Greg Bear 1985. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1986. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org