Review of Fish Tank (2009) by Jens T — 09 Oct 2012

Very rarely, such indie film that really feels realistic and the director know hows to get into the protagonist head and makes us as an audience care for this person no matter what environment nor the circumstances. And that's what Fish Tank is. A real treasure from the so called "British social realism" which shows us an underprivileged underclass environment in East London, and all the people who lives there, and it's certainly not a pretty sight. But as hopeless as it might seem, trying to fit in our protagonist still have hopes and dreams.

We follow the 15-years-old girl, Mia (Katie Jarvis) who's a troubled kid, who don't fit in anywhere, not at school, nor at home, where her mother is even worse than she is, with all her parties and new boyfriends, and a nagging sister. Mia doesn't have any friends, and she will not reduce herself to the same level as the other girls at her age, with their loose slutty attitude. Her biggest dream is being a professional hip-hop dancer. But suddenly one of her mother new type, a storage worker named Connor (Michael Fassbender) whom seems to be extra nice to Mia, and even encourage her to make a audition tape for her dancing audition by lending her a camera. And a strange bond is formed between them, which might cause trouble for both.

Fish Tank is an incredibly strong emotional drama, where we really roots for own protagonist no matter who she is, and her opposition towards the conventional makes us relate to her even more. In other cases we as an audience would have though for ourselves that we knows what best for the main character, like why isn't she going to school, why does she behave like she does. In Fish Tank we don't ask those question, because we see the situation as it is. And Katie Jarvis does an amazing job portraying Mia. When I heard that she was an amateur, and the fact that she's was picked by a casting director after being seen fighting with her boyfriend on a train station. Which is kind of surprising, but at the same time it's not, because she's was already the character she was going to portray. And it once again proves that you don't need an education to be a good actor.

Fish Tank is one of those rare indie films, that is so great that I can't find any errors at all. It's simply perfect, the perfect story, the perfect setting, the perfect well written characters, and the perfect acting performances which makes this more like reality, rather than just a movie. It's a gripping story that really touches us, and there's a real character we can relate to. And it's also great to see how the now famous hot shot Michael Fassbender gives us one of his greatest indie performances, and how charismatic he is in this film. I can't really find anything wrong with this film, except that it could have been longer. Thumbs up.