Weekly Review -- Room to breathe

Fish Tank (2009) -- Independent films are a rare and beautiful breed. Saying more with one glance than most blown-up blockbuster extravaganzas say in their entirety, often using gritty dialogue and context to explore situations that any mainstream work would run away from in a heartbeat, and generally giving new meaning to raw honesty, these gems are the kind of treasure that one finds when one is not looking, and Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank is no different.

Teenager Mia's (Katie Jarvis) life is at a standstill. Living on a council estate with her negligent mother (Kierston Wareing) and foul-mouthed sister (Rebecca Griffiths), and having been suspended from school, she spends her time dreaming about becoming a hip-hop dancer. Things start looking up when her mother's new boyfriend, charming security guard Connor (Michael Fassbender), enters the picture and starts paying attention to Mia and her ambitions, but the friendship soon begins to crumble through a set of rather unseemly circumstances...

The strength of the film lies in writer and director Arnold's willingness to strip bare all of her characters' attitudes, actions and relationships. Instead of shying away from making these people look... well, human, she gives us their truth, from a half-empty bottle to an unmade bed to a breath gone astray. Not one of the characters is purely black and white, and each of them is a palette of emotions, ready to be splashed out into the world at every juncture. Knowing that life is far from perfect, Arnold is unafraid of showing it in its unmasked glory and exposing the virtues and the flaws that make up the human beings she is portraying, as well as rhapsodizing the harsh tenderness of genuine moments that unfalteringly bring out the essence of every single person.

**HUGE SPOILERS (please highlight to read)**

The one part I disliked was the perilous situation involving Connor's daughter Keira, simply because it seemed completely out of context. Up until that point, Mia had been depicted as impulsive and angry, but never as utterly reckless. Having her kidnap Keira and almost cause her death was too dark of a development, even for a film like this one, or maybe especially for a film like this one, being that there is an underlying note of eventual hope woven into every story aspect. It was impossible to figure out Mia's motivation for taking the child, and I am not buying her volatility as a reason. Gratuitous and brutal, the turn of events did not correspond to the organic frankness of the entire piece.

**END OF SPOILERS**

The performances contribute to much of the film's effectiveness. Jarvis is electrifying as the protagonist, her energy vivacious and undeniable. She is capable of projecting pain, fury and melancholy happiness within a matter of seconds; truly a live wire, her Mia interacts more with others through what is unsaid, rather than through what is clearly stated. Fassbender treads a unique and not-so-fine line between affectionate and contemptible as Connor, a father figure who might not be what he appears to be. Wareing is also excellent as the apathetic mother and Griffiths is a star in the making as Tyler, Mia's ignored younger sister.

Fish Tank is a slice of complicated optimism, the kind that can only be found in times and milieus of desperation. Indeed, it deals with people that many would consider to exist on the fringes of society, those among us whose personal growth is stunted by a lack of opportunities, but also by a lack of will to create any. However, its ultimate message concerns finding a sense of self within hardship, following the flow of life's resilience and always remembering that a change may be just around the corner.

8/10