Fish Tank

As the title suggests, Fish Tank is to be looked at. It is to be looked at because it’s the second film from Andrea Arnold, following her terrific debut feature length film Red Road in 2006. It is to be looked at because it depicts the laboured existence of so many teenagers in modern society, and because it depicts this in a manner that few others could achieve. It is to be looked at because it is harsh, grim, and real. In a nutshell, we follow 15 year old Mia (debutant Katie Jarvis) as she struggles with her life in a working class London suburb, and in particular the various emotions associated with being a young teenage girl. And she really puts on a show.

The story goes that Jarvis was spotted by a member of the crew while arguing with her boyfriend at Tilbury Town railway station, the one used in the film itself. She was also unemployed and had dropped out of school. Essentially, she’s not acting at all, this is as real as it gets. Perhaps because of this she is able to provide incredible displays of powerful emotion, the kind of performance that almost saw her land the part of Lisbeth Salander for the impending remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Of course, there’s always a reason for such heightened emotion, and Mai’s life is fraught with tension. Her mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing)is a middle aged slut, openly throwing boozy parties and unashamedly bringing men back to her dingy apartment whenever suits. Her younger sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) treats her with typical sibling disdain, to which she gladly reciprocates. She appears to have no friends, and as a result she is left out of any ongoing activities with the other girls her age- a clear cut example of this occurs in the opening scene, where she innocently watches the other girls dancing. Her very presence causes friction, and as her volatile temper spills over she headbutts another girl, who we later discover has suffered a broken nose.

The arrival of Connor (Michael Fassbender) in her life, as she dances in her pyjamas to a music video on television early one morning, sparks a change in the young girl. The teenage crush is obvious, but given that he is more than twice her age, not to mention her mother’s new boyfriend, there’s a sense straight away that there will be trouble ahead. She is infatuated with him, and his free spirited ways, and does whatever she can to spend more time with him, whenever possible. In turn, he offers her everything that she has been lacking- a friend and a father figure all in one, even encouraging her to push for her dream of becoming a dancer, going as far as providing a video camera to record herself to answer a job application.

There is always a sense that this is hurtling towards the obvious, and hints as to Connor’s motives are not hidden by Arnold. Instead, she focuses on the emotional development of Mia, or lack thereof, for the most part. Although Connor brings out the best in Mia- showing her a happier and more fun-filled life, her destructive, spontaneous and thoughtless tendencies still shine through, including an on-off relationship with a genuinely interested young lad, and an awkward scene in which she extracts her own form of revenge on Connor.

Throughout the film however, Arnold ‘s greatest achievement is her depiction of the world in which Mia lives, and how relative it is to her. Personal relationships aside, there is a sense that there is a betrayal of the real world, a failure in what it can provide for Mia. Within the cramped confines of her estate she is comfortable, she knows her surroundings and what everything stands for, such as the ability to practice her dance routines within the quiet confines of an abandoned apartment and even down to her mother’s lifestyle choices there are no secrets here. Visually we are aware of this quite often also, with many of the estate shots feeling quite restricted spatially, particularly within the apartment itself.

Contrary to this, the real world outside of the poky suburban “Fish Tank” in which she lives, causes her much danger. From grazing her ankle while walking in a lake within an open plain, to the emotion pain that she receives having visited Connor’s very un-cramped semi-detached two story home later on in the film, the openness of the real world appears too much for Mia. It is this failure to understand the complexities of the world around her which enslaves Jarvis’ character, and leaves her lost. Ultimately, Fish Tank is to be looked at because this portrayal of the world in relation to a modern, troubled teenage girl is intriguing, realistic, and very, very accomplished.

Rating:
4/5