fish tank review

Fish tank film review

Mia a young girl aged 15 that aren’t very popular on her estate; she doesn’t have many friends and doesn’t get along with a lot of people. She enjoys dancing and this is how she expresses her feelings. The director has planned this movie carefully and every detail makes a difference and makes the view stronger.

Andrea Arnold presents Mia as a troubled teenager living in a rough area and she finds it hard to express her feelings so that’s why she is always rude and moody. She uses music to express how she feels. She isn’t scared of anything because she nearly got beaten up when she tried to steal the horse. And when the social worker had visited the house she just walked out. So authority means nothing to her although she begins to respect her mother’s boyfriend towards the end. She doesn’t get along with anyone because nobody understands her that’s why she is always on her own.

I think this movie represents British, working class and single mother family in some ways and it gives people a different insight of life.  Its gives a good representation of the setting and the costume of how people like that live. The costume of the female characters in the movie also shows the stereotypes of girls living on council estates that they are either ‘slag’s’ or ‘chavs. The film also has a lot of swearing and abusive words in it to show that the people are illiterate and this how some people live in the UK.

Mia gets taken advantage of her mother’s boyfriend because he is nice to but exploits her one night. She slowly falls in love with her mother’s boyfriend but at one point realises that he doesn’t feel the same and he just used her. And then walks out on the family and her because he didn’t want to be involved anymore. This is why when she goes to his house and see’s that he has a family on his own she reacts by urinating on the carpet. And that’s the way an animal would act and she doesn’t know any other way to express herself. Mia tries to kidnap Connor’s daughter out of revenge so he can feel how she felt and how the family felt. 

Mia doesn’t want to be anything like her mother, getting used by men and getting drunk. But in reality she is because that’s the only role model she has and she is behaving like her mother without being conscious of what she is doing. This is why she chooses to move away from her mother and area, she is the only one that has a dream throughout the movie.

The movie ended like a fairy tale or like most Hollywood movies where the protagonist lives happily ever after. And her moving away with her boyfriend gives a new start to life. Although she is moving from her sister and mother it helps her grow and try something new.

The actors also played a big part in the film because they added a sense of realism and this made the audience realise that it actually happens in life. It also made the audience emphasize with the family and they could feel how the actors were feeling. Also the cinematography played a big part in the movie, because some shots weren’t perfect but it reminded the audience that the movie wasn’t meant to be glamorous but the gritty reality. There were some shots which summed up the whole scene and this made the audience understand and feel what the character is going through.

The movie is targeted at 15 years old or above because some parts are a bit graphic to young viewers. But the movie shows an interesting insight of how single mothers live. It also shows how it is hard for a family to live without a male figure in the house.