Fish Tank Review

Fish Tank Review

Director

The director of Fish Tank was Andrea Arnold, who was born on the 5^th of April 196. She is an Academy award winning filmmaker and former actress from England, who made her trademark film in 2006 with Red Road. After retiring from her career as a television presenter Andrea Arnold studied directing at the prestigious AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles and trained in screenwriting at the PAL Labs in Kent. Andrea Arnold early short films included Milk (1998) and Dog (2001). She won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Wasp, in 2005. She was also named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow.

Main Stars

The two main characters of the movie were Katie Jarvis (female character) and Michael Fassbender (male character).

Katie Jarvis was seen by a casting agent working for director Andrea Arnold at Tilbury Town railway station in Tilbury, Essex, following an argument with her boyfriend, Brian. She was then approached by the casting agent and at first did not believe she was being cast for a film and refused to hand over her phone number. She then eventually took a number and called it. She was then casted in Andrea Arnold's film, Fish Tank, following a successful audition. This was despite having no previous acting experience.

Michael Fassbender is most is well-known for three roles, having played Lieutenant Archie Hicox, in Inglourious Basterds (2009), Magneto, in X-Men (2011)  and the android David, In Prometheus (2012).

Plot

Mia Williams (played by Katie Jarvis) is a troubled 15-year-old who has lived a hard life. She lives on an East London council estate with her single mother, Joanne, and younger sister, Tyler, and is highly aggressive toward both of them. Mia Williams dream is to become a dancer professionally but no support from her mum. However her mums boyfriend, Connor O'Reily (Played by Michael Fassbender), who is very fond of her, some may think he was trying to take advantage of her by being supportive. However he then has sex with her. Mia Williams then finds out that her lover and mums boyfriend has a wife and a daughter. This then aggravates the troubled teenager who then kidnaps the daughter, then later on returning her only to be found out by Connor O’Reily. She then shows up to her dancing audition realising it is a job for a pole dancer, she then leaves as it was not what she had thought it would have been. Mia Williams then makes her dramatic exit with her friend Liam (Jason Maza), as she leaves for Scotland to start a new life.

Characters

Katie Jarvis as Mia Williams

Kierston Wareing as Joanne Williams

Michael Fassbender as Connor O'Reily

Rebecca Griffiths as Tyler Williams

Harry Treadaway as Billy

Sydney Mary Nash as Keira O'Reily

Sarah Bayes as Keely

I think the most effective character was Katie Jarvis (Mia Williams). I believe this because she had never had any experience of acting before this certain roll. But however did an excellent job with her role, also as being the main character.

Genre

The genre of Fish Tank was, coming of age, Indie and Drama. My expectations of the Film were that the main character Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis) would live her dream and become famous dancer. However that was not the case as the film was trying to tell us that dreams do not always come true in reality. This would relate back to how Katie Jarvis actually got the role for fish tank. My other expectation of the film was that the Mother and the daughter would end on good terms which they did. I think the mood of the film was sad for most of the film but however the mood changed towards the end of the film as she left to start a new life. I think the mood of the film was sad as Mia Williams had lived a hard life and is a troubled teenager who has no support from her single mum.

Sound Track

I noticed the sound track for Fish Tank when, Connor O'Reily (Michael Fassbender) played it from his car in attempt to educate Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis), who then started to dance to the song. My opinion of the soundtrack was, it seemed to be a relaxing sound and not really one you would dance to as Mia Williams did in her dance audition. I think the sound track created atmosphere when Mia Williams was auditioning for the dance role, as she knew she had made a wrong judgement on the job.

Audience

I think that Fish tank is aimed at teenagers. I believe this because they can understand the storyline and feel the emotions of the characters. I also think Fish Tank is aimed at teenagers as the language that is used and the sex scenes that are shown in the film. I would recommend Fish Tank to others as it connotes to the viewers that most dreams do not come true in reality, as they are shown in traditional Hollywood movies. I would also recommend this film to others as it shows how some peoples lives are unfortunately like Mia Williams family in Fish Tank.