Little Fish (2005)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Rowan Woods

Writer:

Jacquelin Perske (written by)

Release Date:

8 September 2005 (Australia)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

The past is right here

Plot:

Set in the Little Saigon district outside of Sydney, a woman (Blanchett) trying to escape her past becomes embroiled in a drug deal.

Plot Keywords:

Heroin | Junkie | Drug Dealing | Bank | Little Saigon

Awards:

12 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Cate Blanchett	...	Tracy
Sam Neill	...	The Jockey
Hugo Weaving	...	Lionel
Martin Henderson	...	Ray
Noni Hazlehurst	...	Janelle
Dustin Nguyen	...	Jonny
Joel Tobeck	...	Moss
Lisa McCune	...	Laura
Susie Porter	...	Jenny
Nina Liu	...	Mai
Linda Cropper	...	Denise
Daniella Farinacci	...	Donna (as Daniela Farinacci)
Ferdinand Hoang	...	Khiem
Anh Do	...	Tran
Jason Chong	...	Mingh

MPAA:

Rated R for language, drug content and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

Australia:114 min | USA:114 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

Vietnamese | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R | Iceland:16 | Singapore:M18 (cut) | UK:15 | Malaysia:18PL | Ireland:16 | Germany:12 | New Zealand:R16 | Finland:K-11 | Netherlands:12 | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Bankstown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)

Trivia:

One of the characters was originally meant to have been gone for a few years in Hong Kong. However, after shooting, they realized that the actor had a slightly American accent, so changed all references to Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada.

Quotes:

Janelle: She's doing great. She opening her own shop.
Tracy Heart: Mum. I going into partnership with Min who I work for at the video shop. they're expanding into internet online gaming.

Movie Connections:

Features "Farscape" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Chuyen Hoa Sim

Just One Last Trade Before Moving To A Better Life

As Cate Blanchett said herself, 'Little Fish' is about the people between the middle class and lower class, those who are struggling with their daily lives and are largely ignored. Perske's screenplay is good but it could have been a little tighter as the film does drag at some portions. Woods is good and he brings a certain realness (with the help of the actors) in portraying the complex relationships between the characters. All the main characters, most of them 'recovered' addicts and some returning addicts, try to seek a better life but there is just 'one last trade' that would 'get them to their goals'. Dustin Nguyen (in spite of an uneven accent), Martin Hendersen, Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving are all adequate in their parts and Noni Hazelhurst is wonderful. However, 'Little Fish' belongs to Cate Blanchett. One can see a Blanchett that's completely different from her Hollywood films (then again she's always different in each of her movies). A difficult part required an immensely talented actress and she just makes the task look easy. There's a frightening scene where Cate's Tracy is tempted to 'return' but then a magical scene follows where she walks into a choir rehearsal of a group of singing Vietnamese children and she is confused, conflicted and eventually comforted. This one profound scene was so brilliantly executed with the long shot camera, the innocent voices of the children as they sing the powerful words, and Cate asking repeatedly where the bathroom is while being confused, that the strength of it stays in mind long after the end credits have rolled.