Wednesday 10 March 2010

Fish Tank

2009. Directed by Andrea Arnold.
http://www.fishtankmovie.com/

Synopsis:
Fish Tank is the story of Mia (Katie Jarvis), a volatile 15 year old, who is always in trouble and has been excluded from school and ostracised by her friends. One day her mother brings home a mysterious stranger called Connor who promises to change everything and bring love into all their lives.

Trailers:

Awards:
Best Director for Andrea Arnold and Most Promising Newcomer for Katie Jarvis
British Independent Film Awards – www.bifa.org.uk/winners/2009
Jury Prize Winner – Cannes Film Festival 2009
BAFTA – Outstanding British Film
Reviews:
Andrea Arnold's Palme d'Or contender is a powerful film of betrayed love in a bleak landscape, powered by fizzing performances from Michael Fassbender and newcomer Katie Jarvis.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian, 14th May 2009
In the claustrophobic flats which incubate family dysfunction and rage, and the wild beautiful spaces thereabouts, where the urban sprawls out into the country, film-maker Andrea Arnold finds a powerful story of betrayed love. One of three British movies in competition at Cannes this year, Fish Tank is a powerfully acted drama, beautifully photographed by cinematographer Robbie Ryan, who intersperses bleak interiors with sudden, gasp-inducing landscapes like something by Turner. Arnold takes elements of tough social-realist drama which are, if not cliches exactly, then certainly familiar — but makes them live again and steers the movie away from miserabilism, driven by a heartfelt central performance.
Mia, played by newcomer Katie Jarvis, is a lary 15-year-old who lives with single mum Joanne, played by Kierston Wareing, her lippy younger sister Tyler — a scene-stealer from Rebecca Griffiths — and their drolly named dog, Tennents. As well as a sincere devotion to cheap supermarket booze, the girls have learned from their mother mannerisms of pre-emptive scorn and rage to cover up perennially hurt feelings. Mia herself is a wannabe dancer, and when she's trying out some moves in the kitchen one morning, her mother's new boyfriend ambles in half-naked, looking to put the kettle on.
This is handsome, charming Connor, outstandingly played by Michael Fassbender, and he looks at Mia with frank appraisal. "You dance like a black," he says, " ... I mean that as a compliment." Poor Mia has never had a compliment or any praise in her life and responds with alternating suspicion and fierce, semi-controlled gratitude, especially when Connor behaves like a real dad, taking everyone out for drives in the country.
Of course there is a sexual atmosphere between Connor and Mia, so tropically humid that the ceiling is almost dripping. Mia pretends to be asleep one night so Connor will carry her to bed, and there is an extremely gamey mock-spanking scene, when Connor pretends to "discipline" her. Mia has no idea how to express or manage huge, unspent reserves of passion: she doesn't know if she wants a lover, or a father — or just someone to love her unconditionally. Connor is perhaps the man for this, but the slippery charmer has secrets.
The performances of Jarvis and Fassbender are outstanding and their chemistry fizzes — and then explodes. It is another highly intelligent, involving film from one of the most powerful voices in British cinema.

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