Review of Fish Tank (2009) by Maksim B — 07 Dec 2010

Being the winner of the Cannes Jury Prize for 2009 certainly creates an enormous amount of expectations for a British art-house film and some may not be matched.

The story is as realistic as one could imagine: hard, gritty, hopeless, full of fury and it disturbs you throughout the whole 120 minutes. In addition to this the performances are flawless and it takes quite an effort not to be poisoned by the grim feeling of the depicted social realism.

A very hard and bumpy ride into the reality of a young British girl, a reality which unfortunately the director Andrea Arnold shows without a coherent pace. Once the relationship between Michael Fassbender and Katie Jarvis starts to develop, the movie gets into the right direction, but until this moment it is slow and only hard to be followed.

However, the Fish Tank remains an excellent delivery,even with this minor weak point, which could be considered to be more a question of a personal taste.