fish tank review

Fish tank review

Fish tank is a style of movie in which I enjoy the most, British, gritty and down to earth, a movie which shows the real life struggles of people who may have not had the most privileged lifestyle.

The acting from Katie Jarvis was excellent for what I know was her debut-acting job, however I was confused as to why her dancing was so bad, before the story had unfolded I kept thinking to my self, “is she just a bad dancer, or was this written in the script?” how ever as you watch on, you understand as to why her dancing is so horrible.

It was a pleasant surprise to see Michael Fassbender as Conner, mia’s mothers new boyfriend, he fit the role perfectly, playing the ‘mums new boyfriend’ act, eager to make her two daughters like him.

Also acting from Mia’s younger sister was a great addition to the movie, definitely the character who got the laughs out of the audience and, me, personally, I need a good laugh during a movie, no matter what genre.

Even thought this film was low budget, some of the cinematography by Robbie Ryan was seriously top class, there’s a great tracking shot following Mia and her friend Billy walking down a long road which lasts a good 30-45 seconds from which I can remember and great establishing shots of estate life etc.

Most of the camera shots were showing life through Mia’s eyes as she is the protagonist, more great cinematography work consists of the close up shots on the horse.

The Director used Mise en scene to a great extent in this movie to portray the lifestyle of Mia the protagonist, using cans of beer and bottles of cider to show her antisocial behavior, lighting was all pretty much natural to show a more realistic approach commonly used in these type of brit low budget films, the clothes all the characters wore looked realistic , looking at the fact that nobody works in the family.

Continuity was a main aspect in the editing of this film, the film was shown as the events happened and was done with clean cuts, this helps with the realistic approach and does not confuse the audience when watching, a great scene for editing is when Mia finds out Connors secret when looking at the video camera, she looks around the room to see a life she never had, each turn of the head the audience see’s an eye-line shot of things she was never privileged enough to have.

Although this movie was great, there were many errors to mainly the plot, things between Connor and Mia are unresolved, the fact they had sex and the fact she didn’t get in more trouble for nearly killing a child, also the reality of her surviving in wales with someone she doesn’t even know that well, for that matter, the reality of her going to wales with someone she doesn’t know that well!

Also the overuse of the word ‘cunt’ became annoying, and a reason to why she urinated on Connors living room floor still hasn’t come across my mind.

Overall fish tank was a great film, its flaws made it the style of film it is, and it always has the excuse of being a low budget flick.