Fish Tank Review

Fish Tank was directed by Andrea Arnold born April 5th 1961 she is an Academy award winning film-maker and former actress from England. She retired as a television presenter and studied directing which then she produced live action short films. As a director she has directed six short films called Milk 1998, Dog 2001, Wasp 2005, Red Road 2006, Fish Tank 2009 and Wuthering Heights 2011. All these films are Independent British films which have been advertised but as much as the worldwide films.

The characters in this film are Katie Jarvis as Mia Williams the troubled 15 year old teenager who has a passion for hip hop dance, Kierston Wareing as Joanna Williams an abusive mother, Rebecca Griffiths as Tyler Williams who is Mia’s younger sister, Michael Fassbender as Connor O’Reily who is Joanne’s boyfriend, and Harry Treadaway as Billy who is Mia’s friend. Katie Jarvis had no acting experience, she was cast for the film by one of Arnold’s casting assistance, and she is an ordinary person who was found arguing with her boyfriend at one of the scenes in the film. Arnold however used a familiar face in her film Michael Fassbender who is known for his action movies such as x-men, Haywire and Shame series.

The main character in Fish Tank is Katie Jarvis as Mia Williams, she plays a strong dominant teenager who has a passion to dance, her life is just a mess as her mother Joanne is an irresponsible abusive alcoholic, and she has a little sister called Tyler. Jarvis acting is very whelming as she had no experience of acting before she was chosen to act in this film by one of Arnold’s assistances when she saw Katie arguing at a station with her boyfriend. Her acting really engages with the audience especially the target audience who are teenagers; hence they would understand the story of Mia Williams in the film. Mia is a strong independent girl however falls for her mother’s boyfriend played by Michael Fassbender. Fassbender is a well-known actor and volunteered to help Arnold with her film by existing in it. 

The story explains the hard violent lifestyle Mia lives in, she lives in a council estate in East London with her single mother Joanne and younger sister Tyler. Mia is an anti-social girl who practices hip hop dance on her own in a deserted flat nearby. Along with all her troubles she comes across a horse which look unhealthy and trapped, she tries to free the lonely horse however is attacked by two men who are the horse’s owner. Later on she returns back to the traveller encampment to free the horse again but bumps into another man who explains the horse is dying and is ill, and starts to talk to Mia as a friend. Mia soon discovers that her mother has a boyfriend called Conner O’Reily, a handsome, attractive man who takes Joanne, Tyler and Mia into the countryside to spend some quality time. The next Mia see’s a flyer about club seeking dancers she tells Conner and he encourages her to apply and borrows a video camera from him which she then later sent them a video tape of her dance routine. Later that night Conner and Mia are late up and things turn into bad were Mia and Conner have sex which is an secret, leaving Conner to leave the next morning dumping Joanne. Mia is upset and angry and rushes off to Conner’s house in Chadwell St Mary and comforts him but he talks to Mia explaining that he cannot see Joanne again and drops her to the train station to go back home. However little does Conner know that Mia came back and sneaked into his house finding out that he has a family and betrayed her? Soon Conner and his family come back so Mia rushes to the back window and escape but take their daughter who was playing outside to scare Conner and his wife she returns the girl back home as night falls. Conner is furious and tracks Mia down, she attempts to run but Conner catches up and slaps her walking away without saying a word. A new day, Mia’s audition day, she goes to her audition were she realise that the competitors were dressed up in a revealing erotic way with heavy make-up and danced on a pole, she immediately found out that the audition was for erotic dancers and is disappointed were she plays the music but walks off the stage upset. Mia is fed up with her life and sees Billy her friend on the way back and asks for the horse as it was not there, sadly it had died causing Mia to collapses onto the floor crying her eyes out. Billy offers her to come Wales with him so she returns back home to pack her stuff and says bye to her mother Joanne. Her mother is upset and angry but all three of them Mia, Joanne and Tyler share a dance together before she leaves to Nas CD ‘Life is a Bitch’. Last seen together in the film she says goodbye to her sister Tyler and gets into the car with Billy, Tyler waving goodbye as Mia looks back at her sister and life setting off to start all over again with a bright new life in Wales with Billy.

The genre of the film falls under drama as it is telling us the audience a life of a 15 year old teenage girl with a very hard lifestyle. This film is a 15 certificate; I think this is a perfect target audience as most teenagers would like to watch this film. I think it would connect more with them by the language and cinematography used whereas an older audience aged 50+ wouldn’t be into these films as it focuses on a teenage girl.