I had the initial feeling that Fish Tank was going to be another soupy "mumblecore" film, soon to be buried alongside legions of other Sundance Film Festival entries in the mega-graveyard of movies. Suburban kitsch, slacker wisdom and reflective acoustic guitar scores certainly have their right time and place, but it's the kind of style where any cream-filled goodness is rare to find. But Fish Tank really surprised me. Not only was it expressively paced and shot through with gorgeous cinematography, it contained a spot-on performance by a young, unknown female lead.
The film tells the story of Mia Williams, a 15-year-old living in a rundown apartment complex in Essex. Constantly at odds with her lush of a mother and bratty little sister, Mia spends her time wandering around looking for shit to stir and secretly practicing hip-hop dancing. I know, it sounds like the plot for Step Up 3D, but bare with me. One day, her mother brings home Connor, a hunky (and much older) guy that instantly draws Mia's attention. Mia reluctantly accepts Connor's presence and the two begin to grow close.
From start to finish, director Andrea Arnold injects the film with handheld tracking shots, executed with just the right amount of shakes and jitters. There's something about the persistence and flow of Arnold's style that speaks to Mia's personality. Her simultaneous bulldog defiance and gentle naivety feel all the more genuine thanks to the loose and almost impulsive camera. At the opening of the movie, the camera, like a clumsy but curious child, tracks Mia as she walks around the courtyards of decrepit apartments, calling a friend who won't answer, head-butting the nose of a neighborhood girl who thinks she can dance, attempting to save a captured old horse, home to snatch up her CD player and finally out again to engage in some phat dance-nastics in private.
Katie Jarvis' performance as Mia is pretty remarkable considering she's credited with little to no acting experience, aside from Fish Tank. I was expecting a melodramatic archetype, the kind of teenage daughter you would see in an after-school special about drug abuse - snotty, unreasonable, apathetic. But Jarvis threw a total curve and made Mia into a realistic young woman with altered moods and motivations - at times she is selfish and reckless, while at others she is compassionate and cautious. This multifaceted approach shines in her interactions with Michael Fassbender's Connor.
As Connor's support of Mia's dancing aspirations morph into serious flirting, you'd expect the experienced, fun-loving Connor to take the reigns, but Mia holds her own. There's a scene where Connor is getting dressed in front of Mia, where he leans in, asking her to smell cologne he sprayed on his neck. She takes a big whiff, looking momentarily dazzled, then with her mouth right next to his ear, quietly tells him it smells like "rat piss".
Mia's experience is framed by naturalistic cinematography, letting sunlight gleam through windows and street lamps flood through the camera lens. Add to that a prime selection of block-rockin' beats - the likes of Nas, Ja Rule and Bobby Womack - and you've got a film with a distinctive personality. As a music lover and CD enthusiast, I was glad to see compact discs prominently represented throughout the movie. I'm guessing with all the CDs and the popularity of Ja Rule, Fish Tank takes place somewhere between 1998 and 2002.
I think the most impressive aspect of the film is that it remains tempered and vaguely optimistic throughout. Even at its most harrowing, there's no sink into melodrama. There's no easy sympathy or condemnation. Arnold presents you with Mia's tale and allows you to decide for yourself what you found acceptable or unacceptable about the relationship between Mia and Connor. Overall, Fish Tank is a refreshing portrayal of youth, sexuality, ambition and social taboos, and speaks well to the future of Andrea Arnold. What's she doing next? A provocative new adaptation of Wuthering Heights. I know I'm intrigued.
