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Mr. Beaks Looks Through Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK is a meticulously constructed social realist drama - and that's something of a problem. Though it's not automatically a sign of disingenuousness that a filmmaker working in this genre knows precisely what they want to say and how they want to say it, the tighter the authorial grip, the more likely the characters' narratives will seem over-managed and, therefore, less authentic. Even if the director is fiercely opposed to improvisation, there should still be a sense of spontaneity to the lives of the characters; if one gets too on the nose, they sacrifice realism and run the risk of manufacturing a hoary Social Drama in the self-important Hollywood style.
On the surface, FISH TANK couldn't be further from a Stanley Kramer message picture. Set in and around the slums of Essex, England, Arnold announces her gritty intentions in the opening scene, where her fifteen-year-old protagonist, Mia (Katie Jarvis), ends a tiff with some neighborhood girls by headbutting one of them in the nose. Her blood up from the row, Mia scurries off looking for more trouble, and finds it in a lone white horse chained to the ground outside of a dilapidated trailer. Woozy from the bludgeoning symbolism of this tableau, Mia takes a rock to the animal's restraints, at which point a) she's chased away by its owner, and b) the viewer realizes they're not in the presence of England's answer to the Dardennes.
Arnold's film may be slathered in squalid verisimilitude, but it's as fresh as a community theater production of Elmer Rice's STREET SCENE. Mia's situation is certainly "real" enough: the messy apartment barely maintained by her unloving, promiscuous, alcoholic, abusive and otherwise unpleasant mother, Joanne (Kierston Wareing), feels lived in; her relationship with her bratty, COMMANDO-quoting sister* is believably contentious; and her dream of making it as a hip-hop dancer is the kind of thing a kid with little education and no options would cling to as an express ticket out of hell. But the story is mostly cobbled together with borrowed pieces from other coming-of-age/juvenile delinquent tales: LOS OLVIDADOS, THE 400 BLOWS, KES, OVER THE EDGE... one senses Arnold's affection for these films throughout, without sensing her much at all.
Arnold's imprint is largely on the surface, and impressive as far as that goes. She dots the film with lovely little details that would resonate as memorable grace notes in a movie of consequence (e.g. Arnold's debut feature, RED ROAD). Take, for instance, a shot from within a junked car peering out through a cracked windshield caked with a bloody tuft of hair. It's gone in an instant, but it sticks as a subtle, unsettling portent for the kind of dead end awaiting Mia should she continue down her aimless, pissed-off, booze-addled path. It also suggests Arnold, should she learn to trust her audience, has a capacity for understatement - which isn't so clear when, say, she's cutting to a recently caught fish desperately gasping for oxygen on a riverbank.
That the poor, defenseless fish has been caught by Joanne's new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender, awesome as usual), triggers the usual alarm bells - even though he's taken such a seemingly selfless interest in her two incorrigible daughters. He's particularly intrigued by Mia's interest in joining a dance troupe of some ill-defined variety (nothing to worry about there!), going so far as to lend out his video camera so she can tape an audition. Being that Connor is a pretty good looking guy, and happens to be dating her daughter, it's hardly a surprise when Mia begins flirting with him. Soon, Arnold thrusts the characters into one of those icky, erotically-charged "Will-they-or-won't-they?" scenarios, with the only possible outcome in a film like this being "They will, and Mia's little sister will probably catch them and attempt to use it as leverage."
Aside from an almost-innocent dalliance with a boy from the junkyard where the chained equine symbol resides, Mia predictably makes the worst possible choice at every turn. And when she becomes obsessed with Connor to the point of tracking him down at his house, her behavior gets so errant that the audience loses all sympathy for her. Of course, it's understandable for a girl this sexually confused to pull a FATAL ATTRACTION trick on Connor; that her act feels cynically cribbed from FATAL ATTRACTION strips it of any emotional impact.
It's no fun getting this tough on a small film from a promising young director, but FISH TANK is so clearly a step in the wrong direction after the original RED ROAD, it's hard not to feel a bit ripped off - especially since Arnold's formal skills are rapidly developing. Despite its insanely derivative nature, the visual poetry of FISH TANK snowed a great many critics. She's going to be a major filmmaker. Hollywood will come calling. At this rate, however, it seems more likely her talent will be wasted on a middlebrow prestige picture like THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE than put to use on something more daring. Sadly, if Arnold's willing to shamelessly wed Ken Loach's aesthetic to a down-in-the-mouth variation on SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, chances are she'll move comfortably and confidently within the awards season derby for many years to come. What a loss that would be.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
*It's only one quote, but these things are worth noting.
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...a pajama.
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This movie has been popping up and around this site for quite a while now.
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Feb 02, 2010 5:16:56 PM CST
Thoughtful & eloquent as always, sir, but... Katie Jarvis' perfo
by wonder man
You barely mentioned it, and it was one of the five best femme performances of the year, for mine. (Much better than cute, vaguely charming, mostly simpering, stare-off-into-the-middle-distance for 100 minutes Carey Mulligan in the wildly overrated AN EDUCATION.)
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but hey, kid's (frustrated ones at the least) do the darnest things.
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this is a damn good film. the score, characters, tone, dialogue, direction... everything. didn't so much like the daughter/mother boyfriend plot that built up, but there is so much more going on that it didn't really matter.
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The only thing that ruined it for me was that the little sister was made to be far too chavvy for her age. Maybe I'm behind the times in that respect.
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All the superlatives have been spent. Don't know what else to say, other than she's the goods!
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I think its under sundance presents....I saw half of it, and was intrigued...but alas had to do something in the real world. The first hour seemed to be building toward something sinister.
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Sorry meant to hit tab not return
Am I alone in thinking that this film is overrated? (SPOILERS)
What a waste of potential.
Michael Fassbender gives a great performance and the colourful language is mostly accurate otherwise Fish Tank is just cr*p (okay maybe that's a little harsh) that literally had me shouting at the screen at how predictable, contrived or completely bizarre the Characters, Directors and Screenwriters choices seemed to be.
Technically speaking the film is fine, it's shot and edited competently and none of the performances are necessarily bad but the narrative is tiresome, hokey and trite. I can respect the film makers for their intentions, trying to shed some light on the socio-economic problems of females trapped in the vicious cycle of High-rise Council Estates is not only admirable but it's a setting full of potential. The execution however is anything but admirable.
In the first 5 minutes alone the main character exhibits two pieces of behaviour that are impossible to take seriously. In the real world if she head butted that girl under those circumstances, in this day and age... the other girls would have jumped on her, ripped her earrings out, pulled out clumps of her hair and then proceeded to kick the proverbial sh*t out of her. As soon as they just let her walk away I had a feeling this film wasn't all it was being made out to be. When she then walked onto a small Gypsy site and tried to free the Horse I knew I was going to have a hard time buying into the Directors vision of these characters and the "Gritty, Kitchen Sink" World they inhabit. No one, and I mean NO ONE messes with Gypsies, let alone some "Tough" 15 Year old girl. The fact that these "Gypsies" didn't even have a twang of Gypsy accent just further demonstrated that the Director didn't really know what they were doing.
There were many other instances like this in the film. From small things like the characters driving all the way out to a nice secluded fishing spot and then only spending 5 minutes there all the way up to the God awful execution of the films climax and resolution. That's without mentioning the cringe worthy dancing that is evident throughout the film.
At it's core, on some level the relationship and chemistry between Fassbender and the girl worked but you really could still see "It" coming a mile away.
The girls character arc could have and should have been very effective but to make matters even worse we are bludgeoned over the head with the metaphor of the dead horse, the symbolism of a floating heart shaped balloon and the "reveal" that her 30 year old mother is really still just a little girl who likes to dance (get it? If she stays there she'll become just like her own mum).
I think what really gets my goat is just how much of a wasted opportunity this all was. In more capable hands this really could have been some powerful stuff. -
An tried to use it as leverage? Maybe I had already lost interest by that point, but I don't remember that.
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Watch Ratcatcher if you want to see the British film industry actually pulling this kind of thing off.
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this review is aload of shit, the film is really good, and the central performances are great, Katie Jarvis's being my favourite of 2009. As s Brit I feel AA is capturing something true abut these housing estates without being patronising or tug-on-the-heartstrings about it. Seriously, go see this film when it comes out. And I hope if Hollywood does come calling (as Beaks suggests) she tells them to f*ck off and keeps making films like this.
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and Lost is a very entertaining tv show.
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