Reviews
At the time of writing, I imagine you could spend hours scrawling the Internet reading review after review of Fish Tank. However in my opinion, you may never find a fully weighted, accurate one. They’re all too good. The critics quite clearly think it’s the best thing since the automated bread slicer, picking up awards at the Cannes and Edinburgh Film Festivals, 5-star reviews in respected film journals such as The Guardian, Time Out and Total Film, and an IMDB rating of 8.1/10, putting it respectively 153rd in their ‘Best Films of All-Time’ list (if you ignore the ludicrous scoring system)!
Sadly you won’t get anywhere near the full picture, until you read my review. Seemingly only I will tell you the truth. And the truth is that Fish Tank is a pile of steaming not very nice stuff. Not even a big pile of any note either, but quite a small, unassuming one.
If I’m going to venture far enough into lies and claim that it even has a story, then it involves 15 year-old Romford (Essex) born Mia and her aim to be a dancer, but mainly her struggle growing up around people who ‘don’t understand her’. With a hefty sigh emanating from my now misery-stricken area of the cinema, her ‘story’ continues to expand into problems with pikies (formerly known as gypsies for anyone over 35), social workers, her mum (predictably), and her mum’s boyfriend (more predictably). It’s clear from the get go that you don’t have to be Derren Brown to know what’ll go down here.
With no discernible start, end, or mid-section for that matter, it becomes obvious the filmmakers have intended it to play more like a snippet of real-life rather than a full (arced) drama. Fine. I’m all right with snippets, I don’t need much of an introduction to work with, or even a proper nicely tied up ending to wrap neatly into a waste disposal. The least I ask for is some sort of interest or entertainment along the way. As for entertainment, you’d have better luck finding it at a B&Q work’s party. Let’s list the different possible types shall we?
Humour? No, none of that. Funniest bit was watching her dance. Which I’m sure was intended to appear urban and street, yet professional, as with Hollywood films such as Step Up or other greats like Step Up 2. But this was more like a Strictly Come Dancing special with Jade Goody’s extended family.
Aesthetic? The film’s been praised for its beauty, sure. But how many times can you stick the camera in a tower block and shoot the light coming through the window? Apparently more than you’d think.
Action/Adventure? Mia stands in a lake after going on a drive, then gets a small cut? Admittedly it’s not an action/adventure film, but there’s nothing else going for it, so what kind of film is it?
‘A character film!’ scream its many lovers, and possibly many many more who haven’t even seen it. OK, let’s run with it, there are characters, so that’s a start. It’s a character film then yeah? Then it’s still shit. The characters are all ludicrously stereotypical, and so are you. First time Writer/Director Andrea Arnold appears to have recently graduated from The Beano school of creative writing. Mia’s 8-year old (approximate) sister (Rebecca Griffiths) says “cunt” a lot, and Arnold seems to say “that’s her done, lets get some lunch.” Her mum’s (Kierston Wareing) maternal skills breach the gap between child abuse and simply not caring, preferring to drink and have sex all the time. Whilst Mia’s (Katie Jarvis) own character seems to show a little depth as she attempts to rescue an imprisoned horse. However after stealing, drinking, squatting, GBH, and underage sex, we’re left wondering where the actual girl ends, and where the Daily Mail’s Essex teenage girl begins.
Actually the acting is pretty good. As is the done thing with these gritty dramas, Fish Tank features a seasoned adult cast, mixed with ‘local talent’. The rest of the girls don’t have much acting to do, just swear and make stupid attempts to look menacing, but Jarvis turns out a quite brilliance performance with everything being asked of her. If one good thing is to come of the sheer anomaly of the film’s critical popularity, it’s that this girl may just have an illustrious career ahead of her.
Fish Tank - Brought to you by James Wormald -