 Old houses sometimes come with ghosts. In this world, all houses come with a dependent underclass of people living a cramped, marginal existence wedged in the attic. One Attic Man, tired of relying on fickle handouts from the people in the house below, decides to branch out on his own. Closer to the surface, ATTIC MAN works well on the level of a quirky comedy. The situation, characters, performances and production elements, taken solely at face value, are amusing and thought provoking, with viewers using their own unique perspectives to mine nuances and subtleties from the film. However, it is on a deeper level, as a metaphor for how America and the other industrialized nations view and treat the third world, that ATTIC MAN has its greatest impact. All of the initially accessible elements still charm and amuse, but with a greater weight and effect as they are potentiated by the film s deeper meaning.