Andrea Arnold is the director of the new, and critically acclaimed, version of Wuthering Heights but she also directed Fish Tank, which won the BAFTA for Best British Film. Because Arnold is an up-and-coming British director, highlighting some of her past work seems worthwhile, especially for an American audience that may have missed her second feature film.
Fish Tank is an uneven but unflinching study of an Essex council estate. The first 15 minutes capture brilliantly the stark and often brutal world, especially for young women, of densely populated government housing on the outskirts of London. Further, the film has a special salience for me because the area is not 15 minutes from where I currently live.
The narrative is simple enough and in some ways quite hackneyed. Mia (Katie Jarvis) is a 15 year old girl who seems quite alone despite being surrounded by family. A frustrating sense of claustrophobia drives Mia outward; either toward the streets, where she roams for large segments of the film, or to an abandoned flat, where she practices her dancing. Arnold uses these comparable but divergent trajectories well but there are times when they seem over-extended. The relationship between Mia and her mother’s new boyfriend becomes the central feature of the story as their attraction moves inexorably toward something rather unsettling.
The intersection between anger, violence and sex are always present and there are times when the tension is palpable. In particular Katie Jarvis translates these emotions brilliantly and although partially redemptive, the narrative leaves many of the problems which motivate her character unresolved. Despite its simplicity, Fish Tank is at times an emotionally demanding and, ultimately, a thought-provoking British film.
Filed under: Movies
