Director/writer: Andrea Arnold | Rated: n/a (language/strong sexuality) | Review date: 21-Feb-2010

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank has won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and after viewing it there’s no surprise as to why. The film stars newcomer Katie Jarvis as Mia, a troubled 15 year old growing up in a fairly low income area of England with her drunken and abusive mother (Kierston Wareing) and her younger sister (Rebecca Griffiths). Things take a big change when Mia’s mom brings home Connor, played by Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds).

Mia spends her days wondering around town, typically getting into trouble and doing things to try to escape her life. We soon find one of the few things that actually brings her happiness in her life is hip hop dancing. It’s as if she can escape the life she feels so trapped in when immersing herself into dance. As she see’s more of Connor he gives her the confidence she needs, however things start to become very awkward between the two. While nice guy Connor seems to be a caring and all around good guy, a few interactions between Mia and him early on make the viewer believe there is more than meets the eye. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Jeff from David Slade’s Hard Candy when observing Connor.

As the movie progresses we can pretty much see where it’s going to go. While there was a little bit of predictability at times, it still drew me in and made me care about what happened to the characters. Mia in particular is such a captivating character; we really feel her pain and can relate to her struggles. Katie Jarvis plays the role with such conviction that one wonders whether she’s shared any of the experiences with her character. The other characters really pull on our emotions as well, causing us to feel every bit of anger and sadness with such realism. The actors really do a fabulous job conveying the emotions and feelings associated with their characters, so much so that it becomes very intense at times.

The film spans the better part of 2 hours and at times feels a little drawn out. Despite this, I never found myself bored with this movie, as every shot is beautiful and captivating and added to the overall mood. This is the type of movie that really makes one think during and after viewing. It’s troubling because we know situations like those presented in the film happen every day in real life and it almost leaves us with a depressing feeling. The realism in this movie is really what makes it work, and the heartfelt performances make it all the better.

Fish Tank is an emotionally charged drama dealing with the topics of isolation, hopelessness, and relationships. It’s a beautiful coming of age drama that doesn’t sugarcoat anything about growing up. Some parts of this movie are hard to take in, and there’s one scene in particular that may bother many viewers. However Arnold handles these scenes with such care that they are never exploitive and always are relevant to the story. I can assure you that we’ll be seeing much more of Katie Jarvis in the future, and it will be very interesting to see where her career goes.

Overall this film is one of the better dramas out there that doesn’t give you any kind of manufactured reality. The ending we’re presented with is kind of open ended, but there was a little feeling of hope and resolution that we’re left with which I really enjoyed. Andrea Arnold has created a coming of age masterpiece that sheds light on the less-than-glamorous side of growing up.
Official site | IMDb/trailers

US DVD and Blu-ray coming soon!

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