Sitcom is a yapping Chihuahua taking a shit on the analytical lawn, but it is also a film in awe of its own trappings. The film opens with a family singing happy birthday for their father. Several months earlier We see in this extended flashback that the family is at peace. A perfect nuclear family needs a pet, after all. With the introduction of the rat, things quickly turn odd.
Orgies occur upstairs.
In other words, complete debauchery occurs without rhyme or reason. There is no motivation behind any of the actions, but then that seems to be Ozon s intent. But in a sick way I sort of enjoyed it. The rat, which creeps dubiously about the film as a shady metaphor for this rampant immorality, is allowed a number of subjective POV shots before transforming into a flagrant metaphor near the end, resembling more of a badly conceived monster from a horror movie than any lofty symbol. It s a great gag.