Release: May 27
Running time: 123 minutes
Rating: MA (strong themes, sex scenes and coarse language)

In this dual review, News Hit writers Anna Gilfillan and Christopher Tyler evaluate British director Andrea Arnold’s new film Fish Tank.

Anna Gilfillan

Like her debut feature Red Road and Oscar-winning short Wasp, director Andrea Arnold’s new film, Fish Tank, does not shy away from showing the grim, disturbing side of British life, tackling contemporary social issues- like poverty, adolescence and violence- with the verve and intelligence of neo-realist greats Ken Loach and Mike Leigh.

This coming-of-age drama differentiates itself from similar films like An Education with its authenticity and often-crushing sense of realism, constructing a modern, powerful story of lower-middle class life. In Fish Tank, 18 year-old Kate Jarvis plays struggling teenager Mia who lives in as Essex council estate and has gone off the rails. It seems that Mia, who has a lot a potential (she loves dancing), has not been given the chance to thrive due to her uninvolved mother (Kierston Wareing) and low socio-economic status. When her mother’s new boyfriend, the charming, attractive Conner (Michael Fassbender), steps into their world, Mia finally finds someone to admire and respect, but it becomes evident that Mia’s life is not as simple or straightforward as she thinks and that Conner’s feelings toward her may be more than simple fatherly affection.

Nothing is romanticised or sentimentalised in this bruising, confronting and daring sophomore feature from Arnold. Fish Tank has been a source of much controversy in Britain, as its toughness and sense of confrontation has provoked criticisms that the film is cruel and unsympathetic to its characters. Although it is true that the director does not portray many heart-tugging moments between mother and daughter (and that any momentary glimpses of hope for the characters are flattened by the reality of their surroundings), this is Arnold’s style of storytelling: unpretentious, raw, personal and completely without compromise. The British filmmaker speaks plainly, but truthfully, about her troubled, flawed characters and creates very affecting stories of suburban disappointment and teenage rebellion. In Fish Tank, she tells this painful, intense story with a vibrant lack of artifice and pretence no matter how confronting the subject matter may be (a later sequence between Mia and a small girl is so tense, it is almost too disturbing to watch).

Beautifully cast, the film uses unknown or ‘non’ actors, with the exception of rising Irish star Fassbender (Hunger, Inglourious Basterds, the upcoming “sword and sandals” chase film, Centurion), which helps to reinforce Fish Tank’s sense of authenticity. The rawness of the 18 year-old Jarvis (she is completely new to acting, being discovered at a train station fighting with her boyfriend) shines through from her very first scene, as she has the gift to seem rough in one scene and then so beautiful in the next. The newcomer finds untapped reservoirs of pain and fury to suggest the depth of this girl’s growth over the course of the story and helps spark an unaffected, edgy chemistry with the interesting, charismatic Fassbender (a man almost twice her age).

Although challenging to watch, Fish Tank is a haunting and beautiful film that captures the bitter truths that exist in young girls’ lives and rewards with its remarkable intelligence and honesty about the pain and anguish of modern British life.

Christopher Tyler

Oscar-winning director Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank is a powerfully raw depiction of adolescent angst in lower-middle class Britain. The film follows Mia (Katie Jarvis), a 15-year-old high-school drop-out who lives with her single mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing) and cheeky, younger sister Tyler (Rebecca Griffiths) in an Essex council estate, and her relationship with her mother's handsome and charming new boyfriend, Conner (Michael Fassbender – Eden Lake).

Mia, played by first-time actress Katie Jarvis (winner of BIFA’s Most Promising Newcomer for her startling performance), is a troubled young girl- an outcast of society, isolated from the world – whose only escape is regularly retreating to an abandoned apartment bedroom to practice her dance steps. Her harsh character, a clear consequence of her mother's brutal neglect, has brought her nothing but failed relationships and a heavy reliance on alcohol and cigarettes, a habit which 11-year-old Tyler (another first-timer Griffiths) has already adopted.

It is clear almost immediately that both she and her sister have a very weak and distant relationship with their mother (and, for Mia, seemingly all female characters). The beginning of the film, although crucial in the setting up and developing Mia’s strong and well-explored character, is seemingly unrhythmic, unstructured and messy. Shifting away from the traditional three-act structure, the first few scenes of the film are more of a series of short clips depicting Mia’s relationship with various peers, including a scene where Mia breaks into a private property to free a chained white horse from its owners. While we do learn Mia’s habits and characteristics, and that she is socially isolated, there is still no apparent direction to the action.

Like most films of Fish Tank’s ilk, Mia and Conner’s relationship (sparked with a meeting between the two in the kitchen one morning while Mia, watching music video clips of rappers and dancers, practices her dance steps) starts off nothing short of disrespectful, before escalating into complete infatuation. It is Conner’s kind-hearted nature, and belief in Mia to succeed in her dancing that forces them closer together.

At this stage of the film, it looked as if Arnold had courageously and successfully managed to pull together a gritty English drama with no gratuitous sexual content or drug use, but rather a refreshingly pure story about a young girl finding a real father figure in her mother's new boyfriend. This was epitomised by the scene where Mia, pretending to be asleep, gets carried to her bedroom by Conner who takes off her shoes, socks and pants – a somewhat sexual gesture - before putting the blanket over her and leaving the room.

Unfortunately, the film is undermined by its overly long running time (123 minutes) and its ending inappropriate to the context of the story. There was a scene about five minutes from the end that was perfect in its simplicity and beauty to end the film. Not only this, but Conner’s departure from the film was poor and anti-climactic also, leaving the sour stink of disappointment lingering in the air.

Despite this, the film was enjoyably well acted and well filmed in its no cushioned content. Coming in with no pre-conceived notions as to what the film would be like, I still believe that Fish Tank is deserving of its accolades.