Monday, February 22, 2010
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Monday, February 22, 2010
MOVIE REVIEW
Fish Tank
On Her Own, And Defiantly At
That
Kate
Jarvis as Mia in Andrea Arnold's sophomore effort "Fish Tank", a coming-of-age
story set in working-class Essex, England.
Premier/Artificial Eye/BBC
Films
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
Monday, February 22, 2010
Andrea Arnold returns with the potent "Fish Tank", one of the year's very best
films in this early going. Ms. Arnold creates real characters, truthful,
unapologetic portraits that force us to react viscerally, whether we wish to or
not. No matter what, you'll never be cheated by the director, who burst
onto the scene so memorably with the riveting and exciting "Red Road", her
electrifying debut of 2006.
In "Fish Tank", Ms. Arnold's sophomore effort, England remains the setting, but
the shift is to the working-class council flats of Essex. One resident,
Mia (Kate Jarvis), is 15. A volatile age. She's a firebrand, unruly,
searching for connection. Her passion is break-dancing. Often
practicing her routines, mainly in a vacant apartment, she works up a sweat.
Mia lives with her mother (Kierston Wareing), who doesn't have a job but finds
ways to keep herself occupied. Connor (Michael Fassbender) makes visits to
see Mia's mother. He's essentially the man of a man-less house.
At best, summer in Essex is unremarkable for Mia, a rebel loner trapped by
inertia and curiosity.
Anything but unremarkable however, "Fish Tank" pulses with style and energy.
Raw heat and sexual tension fill the air. Ms. Arnold pours a beautiful and
jagged cinematic symmetry into the film, which flaunts its influences both
discreetly and otherwise. The film's camera behaves like a fish eye or a
child's eye, a curious onlooker that begins to literally open up as an onlooker
to events. It's an apt, shrewd device and metaphor for Mia's adolescent
evolution and rebirth, and it works well.
What also works well is the excellent performance by Kate Jarvis in her acting
debut. Miss Jarvis, like the lady who directs her, is unselfconscious,
confident and fearless as Mia. This young newcomer doesn't ask for
sympathy (or tea, for that matter.) She just is. Miss
Jarvis surely has a great future ahead of her if she continues to do work like
this. The rest of the cast is good, including Mr. Fassbender, most
recently seen in the U.S in "Inglourious Basterds".
"Fish Tank" is replete with Ms. Arnold's biting, funny and ironic dialogue.
If you don't wish to hear a fusillade of four-letter words with a sometimes
unintelligible (to American ears) Cockney-type flavor, then you needn't see this
film. Andrea Arnold isn't a fairy-tale maker. Her celluloid
Cinderellas are tough heroines who don't enter through the back door. No
sugar-coated dreams apply to them. One of their only needs is to make honest, undiluted
statements.
In that regard, and many others, "Fish Tank" succeeds mightily.
With: Rebecca Griffiths, Charlotte Collins, Harry Treadway, Brooke Hobby,
Carrie-Ann Savill, Chelsea Chase, Sarah Bayes, Toyin Ogidi, Grant Wild, Kirsty
Smith.
"Fish Tank" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association Of America.
The film contains harsh language, sexual content and scenes that will repulse some viewers.
The film's duration is two hours and three minutes.
Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film
Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times -
here
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