Fish Tank (2009)

Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.

Director:

Andrea Arnold

Writer:

Andrea Arnold

Stars:

Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing

21 wins & 29 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Katie Jarvis	...	Mia
Michael Fassbender	...	Conor
Kierston Wareing	...	Joanne
Rebecca Griffiths	...	Tyler
Harry Treadaway	...	Billy
Sydney Mary Nash	...	Keira
Carrie-Ann Savill	...	Tyler's Friend
Toyin Ogidi	...	Tyler's Friend
Grant Wild	...	Keeley's Dad
Sarah Bayes	...	Keeley
Charlotte Collins	...	Tall Dancing Girl
Kirsty Smith	...	Dancing Girl
Chelsea Chase	...	Dancing Girl
Brooke Hobby	...	Dancing Girl
Jason Maza	...	Billy's Brother

Storyline

Mia, an aggressive fifteen-year-old girl, lives on an Essex estate with her tarty mother, Joanne, and precocious little sister Tyler. She has been thrown out of school and is awaiting admission to a referrals unit and spends her days aimlessly. She begins an uneasy friendship with Joanne's slick boyfriend, Connor, who encourages her one interest, dancing.

---

Plot Keywords:

essex | dancing | suburb | 15 year old | little sister | 

---

Taglines:

Live, love and give as good as you get.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France]

Country:

Netherlands UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 September 2009 (UK)

Also Known As:

Fish Tank

Filming Locations:

Mardyke Estate, Rainham, Essex, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£103,180 (United Kingdom), 13 September 2009, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,619, 17 January 2010, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$373,060, 9 May 2010

Company Credits

Production Co:

BBC Films, UK Film Council, Limelight Communication

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Katie Jarvis, who plays Mia, had never acted before this film. A casting director spotted her having a fight with her boyfriend at a train station and offered her the role.

---

Goofs

As Mia is leaving the dance audition, she passes a mirrored wall and the cameraman and his equipment is clearly reflected.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
[Mia calls Keeley using a cellphone]
Keeley: [from an answering machine] Hey, it's Keeley. Leave me a message.
Mia: Keeley, it's me. What's going on? I've left like three messages. I said sorry, didn't I? You know what I'm like. I was pissed off. Ring me back, you bitch.

---

Connections

Featured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: The Book of Eli/The Spy Next Door/Fish Tank (2010)

---

Soundtracks

Life's a Bitch
Performed by Nas
Written by Ronnie Wilson / Oliver Scott / Nas (as Nasir Jones) / Az (as Anthony Cruz)
Published by Minder Music Ltd / Imagem Music / Life's a Bitch Publishing, administered by The Royalty Network
Licensed courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited

User Reviews

Right out of the water

"All my films have started with an image," says director Andrea Arnold. "It's usually quite a strong image and it seems to come from nowhere. I don't understand the image at first or what it means, but I want to know more about it so I start exploring it, try and understand it and what it means. This is how I always start writing." What does the image of a fish tank conjure up for you? On the inside longing to look out, is fifteen-year-old Mia. Trapped in a housing estate. Trapped in a single parent family. Trapped by people around her she can't respect. Trapped in herself. For being fifteen. She has her own inner world, fighting to manifest itself . Fortified by cigarettes and alcohol she can kick in the door of the empty nearby flat. A bare floor. Her CD player. Practice her moves. A better dancer than those kids on the block she just nutted.

Mia is quite content to carve out her own double life, f*ck you very much! Never mind she gets caught and nearly comes to grief trying to steal a horse. And social workers don't scare her. But mom's new boyfriend – that could be a pain! A real spanner in the works. Especially when he's so annoyingly nice.

Under Andrea Arnold's hand, life on this inner city concrete backwater is suddenly very alive. Banalities become beautiful. Like sunlight through cracked glass. Vibrant, gritty and riveting, but in a way that entertains powerfully. As pulsating and funny as Trainspotting but without the yuck factor. Its momentum is overpowering. We never know what is going to come out of Mia's mouth or where events will lead. Each jaw-dropping new scene surprises yet seems the result of inexorable momentum. As if that wasn't enough, the story mercifully avoids kitchen-sink drama, excessive violence, drugs, getting pregnant, grand larceny, car crashes and all the other cliché-ridden devices to which cinema-goers are usually subjected. Tightly controlled, Fish Tank attacks with a potent and thought-provoking arsenal of story-telling.

Andrea Arnold proved she could do hard-hitting realism with her award-winning debut, Red Road. Here she excels her earlier efforts but still imbibes many of the verité approaches and senses of discipline that have filtered down from the Dogme and Advance Party movements. Her 'strong initial image,' or lack of subservience to more traditional methodology, maybe reminds of the devotion to experimental, avant-garde cinema taken by artists-turned-filmmakers such as Steve McQueen (Hunger) or theme-over-story technicians such as Duane Hopkins (Better Things). Michael Fassbender, who took reality to new heights as Bobby Sands in Hunger, here plays the mystifying and warmly charismatic Connor (Mum's boyfriend).

Arnold didn't allow actors to read the script beforehand. They were given their scenes only a few days before filming. For the part of Mia, she chooses a complete unknown with zero experience. Arnold spotted Katie Jarvis at a train station after drawing a blank with casting agencies. "She was on one platform arguing with her boyfriend on another platform, giving him grief." However the performance is achieved, Jarvis is electrifying. If Arnold wanted a 'real' person for the role, this seventeen-year-old takes over the screen with raw adolescent power. Says Arnold, "I wanted a girl who would not have to act, could just be herself." Fish Tank will lift you out of your seat and on an unstoppable flight, ricocheting against confines of circumstance and imploding a dysfunctional family with its head of hormonal steam. Laugh, cry, hold on tight. You will need to. I could almost taste the vodka, as Mia goes through her Mum's dressing table drawers, bottle in hand. I wish all British films were this good.