Fish Tank (2009)

A Disappointing Continuation

Blistering performances.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

"Fish Tank" is undeniably one of the greatest "British films of 21st Century." Andrea Arnold's piercing "Fish Tank" is the portrait of an angry, isolated 15-year-old girl who is hurtling toward a lifetime of misery. She is so hurt and lonely, we pity her. Her mother barely even sees her. The film takes place in a bleak British public housing estate, and in the streets and fields around it. There is no suggestion of a place this girl can go to find help, care or encouragement.In the worst of all things, Fassbender, with his magnetic charm and powerful screen presence, is able to make the audience for a connection with even an otherwise despicable character. Connor O'Reily, an initially charming father figure, begins a sexual relationship with his girlfriend's 15-year-old daughter, Mia.As the audience, we see the world through Mia's eyes, as her perception of Connor shifts from admiration to disgust. Fassbender is able to balance this transformation with inspired subtlety and enraged anxiety. While he tries to keep the affair hidden from the rest of the family, we are afraid as we anticipate what evils he is willing to commit in order to do so.In a film so tightly focused, all depends on Katie Jarvis' performance. There is truth in it. She lives on an Essex housing estate like the one in the movie, and she was discovered by Arnold while in a shouting match with her boyfriend at the Tilbury train station, which is seen in the movie. Now 18, she gave birth to a daughter conceived when she was 16.We can fear, but we can't say, that she was heading for a life similar to the one Mia seems doomed to experience. Her casting in this film, however, led to Cannes, the Jury Prize, and contracts with British and American agents. She is a powerful acting presence, flawlessly convincing here. And Arnold, who won an Oscar for her shattering short film "Wasp" (2003), also about a neglectful alcoholic mother, deserves comparison with a British master director like Ken Loach.

feeble and predictable plot. solid acting but plenty of small boring moments. this is a minor thing though because the silences depend on the quality of the direction and of the performances – both of which are excellent.mia is a product of poor housing and a unloving family. she is a character who is tough and loner, who wonders the streets and drowns herself in drinking. she has a caring side for a horse, ie. she is a character that longs to be loved, but she can be very harsh, bitter and vengeful. this movie features incredible use of urban lighting, multiple layers of symbolic references and a very cinematic climax, all without a single note of scored music (other than the diagetic use of music in the car, night-club etc).

Fish Tank is a film that I had high expectations for but it fell considerably short of the mark. The premise of the film sounds like a great drama but for me it just didn't work. First of all the film is way too long for what it is, its 2 hours long and hardly anything happens! This easily could've had 30 minutes edited out as some scenes added absolutely nothing to the story.The film started off good but after an hour I began to realise that nothing special would happen. It was basically just watching a girl walk around her estate, swear at some people, try and free a horse, dance a bit, go home, leave the house again, dance some more and that's really all there was to it. Some of the stuff that was happening was just cringe worthy. The shaky camera was also rather annoying.The actors done a good but this film could have been so much more. Too long and not enough happening, disappointed.5/10.

As someone who took Media Studies for 5 years in secondary school, reviewing a movie should really be a walk in the park. However, I really don't feel like any words I could string together would do this movie justice - but I am going to try. We follow Mia, a 15-year-old aspiring dancer who has been forced to grow up ahead of her time because of the environment she lives in, the people she interacts with and the borderline negligence of her own mother - A woman who would rather drink herself silly and try to preserve her dying youth than face her children and be reminded that she has responsibility for people younger and less independent than she is. Mia is at the centre of a lot of controversial events, such as paedophilia and kidnapping, creating a movie that is somewhat hard to watch, even if you may not be able to tear your eyes from the screen. She makes a lot of bad decisions throughout the movie, but that does not make her character unlikable. Everything Mia encounters builds her character up to the young woman we see at the end of the film, leaving with a friend to go to wales for an undetermined period of time. This is when we see the closest moment between Mia and her family, sharing a dance with her mum and a heartfelt hug with her younger sister, Tyler. The almost hand held camera work and use of only natural lighting made for a very real experience with nothing held back, depicting perfectly what life for a lot of the poverty stricken families in England is like.