Day 161: Fish Tank

With little money and a difficult family life, Mia (Katie Jarvis) is not having the best time. She’s 15, doesn’t seem to have any friends, and she has been kicked out of school for her aggressive tendencies. Her mum is a bit of a party girl and she resents Mia for reminding her that she’s not the young thing she used to be. There seems to be nothing going for Mia, that is until her mum brings home her new boyfriend, Connor (Michael Fassbender). He is friendly and makes an effort with Mia and her younger sister, and he encourages Mia with her dancing. She falls for him and with his support, she focuses on dancing and ends up with an audition. But the good times can’t last forever and it all goes downhill pretty quickly after a drunken night.

Despite her aggressive personality, I’m not convinced she’d be like that if her circumstances were different. We see her headbutt a girl in the street and just walk off like she doesn’t care, but later she tries to free a horse that she thinks is being mistreated. She is gentle with the horse and is careful not to spook it and she seems to have little concern for the danger she’s in, she’s just focused on helping the horse. Everyone she comes across is met with a scowl and a harsh word, but she’s different with Connor. He isn’t patronising or hurtful towards her, and he does just seem genuinely friendly. The stony persona she puts on to the world is softened when she’s around him. He catches her dancing and is complimentary, which seems to give her the confidence to pursue it. He comes back to the house and is quite drunk and the two have sex. Immediately after, he comes to his senses and the next morning he takes off.

Mia is obviously hurt that he would run off after sleeping with her and she goes in search of him. She finds his house over in a fancy estate and she discovers that he has a family. This does not go down well. She sees his daughter and convinces her to come away with her to get ice cream. The little girl gets more and more frightened as Mia gets more angry, and eventually the two end up struggling next to the river. The girl falls in and for a minute it seems like Mia is going to leave her to drown but she saves her and takes her back to her house. Connor is furious and drives after her but all he does is slap her and walk off. Perhaps he realises he was partly responsible for the injuries his daughter suffered and that he took advantage of Mia, so he couldn’t hurt her anymore.

We see all of this from Mia’s perspective and I think the film could’ve been better if they’d had a stronger actress play that role. Katie Jarvis was good, don’t get me wrong, but not strong enough to really hold interest consistently. It might’ve been interesting to see more of her mother, too. Overall, the film was good but could’ve done with a few tweaks.

7/10