First Night: Fish Tank

4.00

A kitchen sink drama with a shot at the Palme D'Or

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
Arts & Ents blogs

Brighton Fringe 2012: laughing through the blood, sweat and tears

It has been an emotional journey. The three weeks of intense activity that make up England's larges...

Disclosure: We’d never even been to a club when we made our first single

For most of us, reaching eighteen years of age opens up a new world for exploration, spontaneity and...

Something For The Weekend in London: May 25 – May 27

With 20+ degree weather expected to last all weekend in the capital, we'd be silly not to make the m...

British director Andrea Arnold puts herself in the frame for the Palme D'Or with this hard-hitting sophomore effort. Like her debut film Red Road, which played in competition at Cannes in 2006, Fish Tank is a kitchen sink drama with themes of alienation and sexual repression explored by a picaresque female protagonist.

Seventeen-year-old newcomer Katie Jarvis beguiles. She plays foul-mouthed troublemaker Mia, 15, and the camera follows her like a bee to honey as she marches through rough Essex, arguing and fighting. At the start it's all rather reminiscent of the Dardenne brothers' excellent 1999 Palme D'Or winner Rosetta – a determined, troubled teenager stopping at nothing to make a mark in life.

Attention is soon focused on Mia's difficult home life and, most pertinently, her relationship with her mother Joanne (Kierston Wareing), the hard-nosed narcissistic type who frequents tales of working-class family woe. She is first seen calling her daughter "a bitch" before bringing home a new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender). Friendly and amusing, he sets the teenager's pulse racing and the tension between them makes uncomfortable viewing.

Arnold toys with the audience when Connor puts Mia to bed, and again with Mia's increasingly frequent visits to his workplace. It is inevitable that they will sleep with each other, but as important as this crime is Joanne's failure to notice her daughter's sexual awakening. Arnold poses the question: what hope can we have for Mia, when she lives as if in a fish tank and possible escapes are closed off to her?

Mia sees her way out of her shackles through dancing. Whenever the harsh drama gets too heavy, Arnold cuts to Mia practicing her moves, or demonstrating her prowess to Connor – Bollywood-esque use of music to relieve tension.

Of particular note is Robbie Ryan's excellent camera work. Even empty rooms in council houses look interesting. He saves his best work for landscape shots; whether filming a river, street scenes or the imposing sky, he captures Mia's mood.

When Mia finally cottons on to the truth about Connor it leads to an intriguing, edge-of-your-seat denouement as she tracks him down in Tilbury.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Is Ridley Scott the most macho man in movies?

Ridley Scott: The most macho man in movies?

His cinematic CV is unparalleled. Yet the Alien director is still obsessed with beating his rivals.
Being Gary Lineker: The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport

Being Gary Lineker

The clean-cut anchorman is this summer's Mr Sport...
Gallic gourmets are putting French cuisine back on the culinary map

Gallic gourmets put France back on culinary map

Overdone, out of touch and old-fashioned: French cuisine has never been at a lower ebb...
So Moorish: Mark Hix offers his own take on classic Moroccan dishes

So Moorish: Mark Hix's Moroccan dishes

Why not create a north African-inspired feast to share with your friends?
Sin and the single mother: The history of lone parenthood

Sin and the single mother

Maureen Paton explores the history of lone parenthood.
The outsider: Margaret Howell is British fashion's queen of minimalism

The outsider: Margaret Howell

The designer tells Susannah Frankel why she has never felt part of the fashion industry.
The 50 Best luggage

The 50 Best luggage

From chic cases to compact baggage, pack it all in this summer
For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos in Greece

For men only: A pilgrimage to Mount Athos

On a secluded peninsula in north-east Greece lies an enclave that's way off the tourist map, especially for women...
48 Hours In: Faro

48 Hours In: Faro

More than just the gateway to the Algarve, this city has much to tempt you off the beach.
Here, the coast is always clear: Celebrating sixty years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

60 years of Pembrokeshire's National Park

Mick Webb reveals a land of puffins, tanks and Hollywood blockbusters.
Free Range: Meet the designers of tomorrow

Free Range

Meet the artists of the future
Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

Feeding a hungry world – or meddling with laws of nature?

As scientists at Rothamsted's GM trials plead with activists not to sabotage their work, Michael McCarthy visits the battle field
Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Monkey meat that could be behind the next HIV

Deep in Cameroon's rainforests, poachers are killing primates for food. Evan Williams reports from Yokadouma on a practice that could create a pandemic
Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Catcalls, whistles, groping: just another day for a young woman

Government urged to take abuse more seriously as London study shows 41 per cent are harassed
Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Jailing of Maori separatists stirs colonial-era resentment

Militant Tuhoe tribe members defiant amid claims race relations had been set back 100 years