Review of Fish Tank (2009) by Karly A — 10 Jun 2011

Fish Tank is a very realistic, sometimes sad, but always straight-lipped look into the life of a teenage girl named Mia growing up in a bleak apartment complex in Essex. She has next to no education, a foul mouth, and few aspirations. At first Mia, played by Katie Jarvis, is hard to crack, even hard to like. She's simply a rebellious teen looking for a fight. But she begins to soften. Jarvis utilizes some incredibly subtle acting that allows us, with minimal dialogue of consequence and a barely softened expression, to get into the head of Mia, who is hurting and neglected, only feeling truly alive when she is hip hop dancing. She struggles to find a way to escape from the trap- the titular "fish tank"- of the dead-end existence she moves in, never really seeing or caring about anything except dancing, but then slowly, about a dying horse, and about the tantalizingly affectionate Conner.

Conner, her mother's new boyfriend, played by the brilliant Michael Fassbender, scares and soon fascinates Mia with his honesty and sexuality, a fascination that is mutual. They form a bond that Mia begins to drown in, and her problems only worsen from the association, as she begins to realize she has no identity, and is losing hers in desire for him, or rather, what she thinks he represents.

As everything begins to fall apart, Mia begins to realize she has to do something with her life, and has to do it on her own, not piggy-backing off of anyone else.

It's a bit of a bleak film, both thematically and visually, filmed under slate-grey Essex skies with realistic cinematography that often appears to be handheld, but both aspects have a hopeful note, the film is about overcoming, not buckling, and the sky turns blue and gold to powerful effect.

The film is carried beautifully by the powerful chemistry between Fassbender and Jarvis, and as their friendly affection becomes charged, the electricity is palpable in all of its sexual and disturbing vehemence, an impressive feat, considering the age gap of the actors and their characters. But while their relationship is the set piece of the film, it is more concerned with Mia as an entity rather than any of her associations. The film could have easily become a stereotypical coming of age film, but utilizes shock that works beautifully, ironically, helping the film to maintain realism by avoiding melodrama. Altogether it is a film about escape and self containment, even as it's about false love and real hope. It may not be a "beautiful" film, in terms of story or aesthetics, there is something so true and earnest about it that it is far better.