Fish Tank
Fish Tank is a 2009 British drama film directed by Andrea Arnold. The film won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film.
It was filmed in and around Essex, England, especially the Mardyke Estate in Havering, the town of Tilbury, and the A13, and funded by BBC Films and the UK Film Council.
Plot
Mia (Katie Jarvis), a volatile 15-year-old, lives on an Essex council estate with her single mother Joanne and younger sister Tyler. Neglected by her frequently drunk mother, Mia is a loner and is seen fighting with the other girls who live nearby - one of whom she headbutts in the nose. Excluded from school, she is frequently in trouble with the authorities and spends a lot of her time drinking alcohol procured from older kids on her estate. Mia's only outlet is street dancing, which she practices alone in a deserted flat. Wandering around her estate, she comes across a tethered horse in a traveller encampment in nearby waste ground and seeing that it is painfully malnourished, makes several attempts to free it, first with a brick and then by fetching a hammer from home. In doing so she incurs the anger of its three owners, two of whom grab hold of Mia as she violently struggles to get away. She is only saved by a dog let loose by the third brother Billy, diverting the boys' attention and allowing Mia to escape. She returns to the caravan park in a third attempt to free the horse but Billy (who is there on his own) stops her explaining that the horse looks thin because it is ill and won't last much longer. The two eventually strike up a friendship.
One day her mother brings home her new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender) who works as a security guard in a nearby hardware store. He is charming and appears to want to be a father figure to the two children but seems a little too distracted by Mia as she walks around the house in revealing clothes which annoys her mother. Connor makes excuses to be intimate with Mia by giving her piggy-back rides and when she is rude mock-scolds her by holding her down and smacking her across his knee. On one occasion when Mia pretends to be asleep, Conner carries her to her room, removes her trainers and tracksuit bottoms before putting a blanket over her. Although she tries to appear abrupt towards him, Mia is intrigued by this new person in her life and one night secretly watches him and her mother having sex. She tells him about a local dance audition that she wants to put herself forward for and he lends her a video camera to record an audition tape. Testing the camera, Mia records Connor as he dresses to which he doesn't object. Meanwhile Mia's mother receives a visit from a social worker who asks Mia if she can talk to her regarding her starting a progressive school. Mia agrees to the talk to the woman but after pretending to get a drink from the kitchen, runs out of the front door. She comes across Billy and helps him scavenge for car parts at a local scrap yard. She wants to buy alcohol and so takes him to the hardware store to find Connor who (seemingly unnerved by Billy's presence) reluctantly gives her the money.
Having posted her audition tape, Mia gets a phone call from one of the organisers inviting her to the audition. She happily informs Connor of this and late one night after they have both been drinking, he persuades her to show him the dance moves she has prepared for it. He then invites her to sit close next to him and they end up having sex in the living room while Mia's mother is passed out drunk upstairs. Afterwards he awkwardly tells Mia that she must keep what happened between them a secret and goes back to Mia's mother.
The following morning Mia hears her mother crying and a distressed Tyler informs her that Connor has left. Mia is able to track him down to his home in Tilbury and confronts him. He explains that he cannot go back to the mother for obvious reasons and implies that he can't see Mia anymore either. He drives her to the train station and gives her money to get herself home, not before kissing her goodbye on the mouth. Defiant, Mia returns to Connor's house and finding it empty, breaks in through a back window. Exploring his affluent home, she discovers that he is not only married but also has a young daughter, Keira. When Connor and his family return, Mia slips out through the back door and is about to leave when she spots Keira playing outside on her scooter. She persuades the child to come with her and the two set off across the fields. However as Keira becomes distressed, Mia has to struggle to stop her from running away and in the tussle between the two of them that follows, a frustrated Mia pushes Keira. The child falls backwards into a river.
Keira nearly drowns. With terror and remorse, Mia holds out a branch for the child to climb to safety. After comforting the little girl, Mia decides to return the soaking wet and cold Keira home, making sure she sneaks away unseen. As Mia is walking home along the motorway, a car screeches to a halt alongside her. Mia tries to escape across a neighbouring field but the driver, seen to be Connor, gets out and pursues her. Catching up with Mia, he slaps her hard across the face, making her fall back in alarm. Nothing is said as Connor returns to his car and drives away.
Several days later Mia turns up to the audition, only to discover that the organisers are looking for erotic dancers, with one girl performing a pole dancing routine as she walks in. When it is Mia's turn she steps onstage but as the music starts, she looks at her fellow semi-naked auditionees and walks off. She goes to find her friend Billy and discovering that the horse she had cared for has died, breaks down in tears. Billy tries to console her and tells her he is leaving to go to Cardiff and invites her to go with him. Mia then is seen packing her bags in her room as Tyler unhappily watches her. She goes to say goodbye to her mother and finds her downstairs, in an almost trance-like state dancing to Mia's Nas CD. She informs her mother she is leaving, who doesn't seem to react to the news and nonchalantly tells her she'd better go. Before leaving Mia walks up to her mother and dances along with her, with Tyler joining in. Outside she hugs Tyler goodbye ("I hate you." "I hate you too.") before she gets into Billy's car and is driven away to a new life elsewhere.
Production
Katie Jarvis who plays Mia, had no acting experience. She was cast for the film after one of Arnold's casting assistants saw her arguing with her boyfriend in Tilbury Town railway station, which is the station featured in the film.
Fish Tank was filmed in chronological order. At the end of each week the actors were given the scripts for the scenes that they would perform the following week so that when they performed each scene they were largely unaware of what would happen to their characters later in the film.
Music
Music features prominently in the movie, particularly connected with Mia's dancing. The song she uses at her audition is "California Dreamin'", as covered by Bobby Womack (1968). The CD she borrows from Connor is The Best of Bobby Womack (2008), on which "California Dreamin'" appears on track 17, as Mia requests.
Other songs includes "Life's a Bitch" by Nas.
Cast
- Katie Jarvis - Mia Williams
- Michael Fassbender - Connor
- Kierston Wareing - Joanne Williams
- Rebecca Griffiths - Tyler Williams
- Harry Treadaway - Billy
- Sydney Mary Nash - Keira
- Sarah Bayes - Keely
Release
Critical reception
The film currently holds a 88% "certified fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 83 reviews. The New Yorker' s David Denby writes, "'Fish Tank' may begin as a patch of lower-class chaos, but it turns into a commanding, emotionally satisfying movie, comparable to such youth-in-trouble classics as 'The 400 Blows.'"
Notes
- ^ The station is Tilbury Town railway station, where Jarvis was recruited.
References
- ^ a b "Festival de Cannes: Fish Tank". festival-cannes.com . http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/10902591/year/2009.html . Retrieved 2009-05-09 .
- ^ Press Book, p. 10
- ^ Higgins, Charlotte (2009-05-14). "How row set in train life-changing offer for Fish Tank star". The Guardian . http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/14/fish-tank-andrea-arnold-cannes-film-festival . Retrieved 2009-05-27 .
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^
Hoyle, Ben (20
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Everything changes for 15 yr old Mia (Katie Jarvis) when her mum brings home a new boyfriend. Andrea Arnold's FISH TANK (2009) opens In UK Cinemas 11 September.
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Fish Tank (2009)
Directed by Andrea Arnold. With Katie Jarvis, Rebecca Griffiths, Carrie-Ann Savill. Everything changes for 15yr old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend. Visit IMDb for ...
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Fish Tank (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fish Tank is a 2009 British drama film directed by Andrea Arnold. The film won the Jury Prize at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. [1] It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film ...