Review of Fish Tank (2009) by Andrejs P — 06 Dec 2012

"I believe that good movies are a civilizing force. They allow us to empathize with those whose lives are different than our own. I like to say they open windows in our box of space and time." -Roger Ebert.

Fish Tank, a film both good and unrelenting in its unveiling of the lives of troubled individuals, is a shining example of the truth found in such words. What movies have the potential to do, among many other things, is to teach us and move us simultaneously. Most people reading this review will never experience the kind of existence that dictates the actions of its main character, Mia (Kate Jarvis). She lives in an Essex estate in an area saturated with people living at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Mia's mother, Joanne, is foul-mouthed party girl whose parenting abilities drift between marginal and non-existent. Mia's actions, her frame of mind and her tendencies are to some extent unfortunate byproducts of Joanne's incompetence, but we get the feeling that some of her qualities are prevented by her own stubbornness and inability to change. Or maybe it's that she lacks the knowledge to change. The naivety and the immature qualities that have been forced upon her by a non-existent upbringing are doing her the disservice of presenting an unavoidable, inescapable short changing. Whatever the case, Mia's life is troubled, and it only becomes more so after the introduction of Connor (Michael Fassbender) into her family's life.

Connor is a man who enjoys the free loving, no-strings-attached approach that Joanne takes towards the concept of a relationship. It's obvious that they've met at a bar, a party, or someplace similar to both. Like Joanne, he likes to party, to drink and to have fun. Unbeknown to Mia, a series of traumatizing, emotionally conflicting and confusing events are set into motion as soon as he arrives in their home. We first sense that something is amiss when Connor walks into the kitchen while Mia is dancing in her underwear, complimenting her and sending signals with disguised motive. From this point on, an awkward, unsettling tension surrounds the two whenever they're together, and Connor's motive remains elusive. The film revolves around this tension until an opportunity presents itself for Connor to confront Mia sexually, leading to a scene that both defines and dictates the outcome of her circumstance, as well as the feel of the final act of the film. Connor is an opportunist of sorts-he's slyly manipulative and great at masking motive. We get the feeling that he's done this before. He remains a guessing game until the act that sends the situation hurdling to its climax.

The scene in which Connor has sex with her is one of the best in the film. The technical brilliance of it creates a feel of building anticipation. Arnold shoots Jarvis' face in close-up as a street lamp floods into the living room through the window behind her. Connor sits on the couch with an eerie look of misguided lust on his face, and the camera pans to him every few seconds to capture this state. They're both drunk, and Connor has requested that she perform her audition for him for a local dance audition. Joanne is passed out drunk in her room. According to Mia, "she does that." This is a verbal queue of affirmation for Connor, and he pounces on the opportunity. The next morning, he's disappeared from the apartment, and Mia awakens to Joanne sobbing in her bedroom.

What happens next is a result of adolescent confusion and inexperience. Shaken by a chain of events that lie completely out of the realm of her control, Mia decides to track Connor down and confront him at his home. Mia can't identify with or assess the whirlwind of emotion that she's experiencing, and this becomes evident in her subsequent actions. What she finds after hunting him down is something that I think many viewers of the film expected. He has a wife, a daughter and a life completely separate from the one he shows to lead with Joanne and Mia. The redundancy of family life has prompted him to lead two mutually exclusive lives, but his choice to do so has caused unnecessary consequences and repercussions for an innocent, naïve and inexperienced young girl. In a series of knee-jerk, reactionary decisions, Mia breaks into the house and finds a video of his wife and daughter. Astounded, she decides to partake in a reactionary act of rebellion and urinates on his living room floor. What follows is another profound scene of the film. Connor returns home with his wife, Mia escapes from the back of the house then crouches behind a neighbors bush to watch what takes place in his driveway. As she sits in a frantic state of anger and confusion, Connor's daughter comes strolling by on her scooter. An interesting dichotomy exists here: the little girl senses nothing out of the ordinary. She is partaking in her normal activities. For Mia, she's thunderstruck. Her anxiety is overwhelmingly confounding.

Fish Tank is a great film because it works on two distinct levels. It's a sociological dissection as well as an emotionally sound, slice of life drama. It's a case study for what non-existent parenting does to those who fall victim to its unfortunate consequences. Mia remains a victim of her circumstance, so we can't place all of the blame on her. Behavior is learned. Her mother curses profusely, drinks copiously and behaves irrationally. Mia acts the way she does because she sees her mother doing the same things. She isn't old enough to know better. Or is she? I'll let you decide for yourself. This is one of the many important questions the film brings to light. I don't feel like it would be too far of a stretch to say that with five more years of "life" under her belt, she would have sniffed it all out. That point is moot, though. That wasn't the kind of story Arnold wanted to tell. From a technical standpoint, Fish Tank is nearly flawless. It's paced appropriately and filmed beautifully. While watching it we're placed among people and surroundings that are much unlike our own. We view the circumstance of these people, expose ourselves to their actions, and we draw our own conclusions. Maybe we can empathize. If we don't, then we come away from the film understanding what life is like for people that live differently than we do, whether we think their chosen way of life is the "right" or "wrong" way to live.