Being either bullied at work or stuck at home looking after his sick mother, Willard (Crispin Glover) lives an unfruitful life. Then one day he meets a white rat who he calls Socrates. Socrates is both a loving and intelligent rat who brings hoards of friends with him. Willard soon discovers that through Socrates he able to control the rodents to get revenge on his boss, but the tables are turned when another rat, the gigantic Ben, gets jealous of being in second command after Socrates.
Willard is actually a remake of a film of the same name from the 70's. The original spawned a sequel entitled 'Ben' which gained notoriety due to it's more famous theme song by Michael Jackson. The song Ben itself appears twice in the film, the original and a new version sung by Crispin Glover who also directed a music video for it. Having previously only seen this music video I was never aware that the original song was written for such a film as it was, especially by Jackson. Though thinking of the Thriller video the connection makes more sense.
The characters in Willard are all archetypal, the sympathetic outcast who lives with his mother, the over the top and bluntly evil bully and the possible love interest. Overall the film is easy to get into and just plain fun.
Watch Crispin Hellian Glover's Ben
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