I gotta admit that for a student/college project this short film is quite remarkable since there are some nice production values despite the limited budget and for quite
some time there was elements to compose a good action film. However, it all goes to waste due to its lack of ideas, a total incomprehensive story where it's hard to figure out
what's going on and in the end the viewer doesn't get reward with nothing.
"Ratoeira" ("Mousetrap") tells the story of three guys who have the execute a complicated robbery inside of a carefully protected building following order of a mob boss.
It all goes according to plan except when they get the wanted briefcase or whatever object it was the alarm turns on and they have to run away for cover. That escape doesn't
go well either when they can't enter their own car so they kidnap a taxi driver. Won't tell the rest of how it goes except that it gets worse for them and the reasoning is
qute obscure.
It was difficult to enjoy this thing since we don't know exactly what they are robbing, we don't know the exact purpose for all that action since it's not revealed what's
the ultimate gain for the trio, and worst of all, those characters barely talk in the whole thing and when they do it you can't understand a damn word of what they're saying
thanks to the heavy Portuguese accent alligned with a cheap low sound that makes their voices uncomprehensible while the soundtrack is played way too high in our ears.
Basically all we have is a very empty movie that presents only a couple of good action scenes such as the robbery which is quite tense and the soundtrack really works
with its electronic beat, but the majority of the movie is plain dull. I tried to like it but it didn't work for me. Sadly. The makers ambition is there but there's no heart to follow along with it. 4/10.