Fish Tank

Fish Tank

Director Andrea Arnold’s new pessimistically carnal character study Fish Tank completes the triptych of the young and restless young ladies of 2009. That being Precious in Precious, Jenny in An Education, and now Mia, brigadier general of the group. Take your pick: a frolicking ode to sexual awakening in pre-Swinging London (That time as Philip Larkin so ironically put it “Between the end of the Chatterley ban/ And the Beatles’ first LP”); Harlem in 80’s with sexual and physical abuse thrown on a minor who also happens to be a mother of two children from her father’s loins (who tops this by giving her a dose of HIV); or monolithic shanties bearing foul-mouthed chavs and their tramp parents in present day Essex, UK.

All of these teenage girls have such clueless parents, particularly mothers (not to mention abusive, though “An Education” bows out before things get rough, though we doubt child abuse would ever happen with such a prickly daughter as Jenny). And yes, Mo’Nique deserves all the accolades she’s been bestowed for her magisterial monster mother she portrays, however “Precious” falls into tedium too soon, not rooting it feet into the soil as Fish Tank so firmly does.

Why “Fish Tank” is the strongest of the three is the patience it gives the viewer in siding with our young protagonist. We’re not tossed into the emotional muck quite so quickly as “Precious.” Nor do we find our protagonist particularly precocious enough that we find her tedious after the first third of the film as in “An Education.” Arnold doesn’t have time for backstory nor do we need it. We get the picture (As William Holden says in “Sunset Boulevard,” “You just look at their shoes, and you know the score”). We know that Mia is an aspiring self-taught hip-hop dancer (as much as Abigail Breslin is Ginger Rodgers in “Little Miss Sunshine” if you catch my drift). She comes from poverty, bad manners, an absent father, an alcoholic mother, and is a loner who alienates every friend-to-be. She’s a sad creature, but a very curious one. And this curiosity is piqued upon the arrival of mum’s new boyfriend Conor (smartly played by Michael Fassbender). He’s a very kind, warm creature. One who seems more alien than the family he’s preparing to adopt for himself. Sexual tension is inevitable between the two, and it’s released in a rather erotic–yet cold–scene on the couch after hours when mum is passed out upstairs.

What underscores the success of “Fish Tank” is the relentlessness of Arnold to aim for stereotypes and yet zip around them with such ease. We need these for familiarity’s sake, however we can walk without them quite effortlessly. These types of movies that are destined for Oprah’s couch are easy to get bogged down in “pray for them, Sister” jeremiads. Take, for instance, what’s especially troubling about Mia. It’s not that she’s not reaching for the stars–she knows her socioeconomic ladder is a mere stool–but rather her complacency about it all: she’s beat before a fight is even arranged. But since knowing her parameters she works in them, and the parting scene underscores this ever so nicely. Is the film pointing the finger at cases like Mia and telling the government “clean this mess up?” Not exactly. Mia makes no cries for help. She’s the existential hero Sartre could never write. She starts and stops again on numerous follies in the film. She knows she’s the only one who’ll take herself to task. And this type of wisdom does come from age, but rather spirit. And I appreciate Arnold finally giving us an adolescent protagonist who’s not a chest beater, nor an obvious victim of some discrepancy in the system (that is to say there is, but outcomes are multi-faceted, of course, and this is a refreshing take). A very worthy achievement.

Now showing in Manhattan

Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
1886 Broadway 11:05am, 1:20pm, 4pm, 6:45pm, 9:20pm

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. 11:05am, 1:40pm, 4:20pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8:40pm, 9:40pm