On glancing at the narrative, yes it does seem like a feature-film-length Jeremy Kyle episode. Set in an Essex council estate, the film's focus never strays from the unfortunate, impoverished and often marginalised members of British society - what the unpolitically correct would perhaps label as 'chavs'. From the film's opening we are thrust into the world of teenage Mia who is abrupt, aggressive and excessively angry. Within the first few minutes she headbutts a girl for being a shit dancer.
When it is revealed Mia's dream is to be a dancer, I couldn't help but feel dissappointed, anticipating a typical cliche coming-of-age dance-flic, provided recently by the appalling Step Up franchise, Honey, Fame, and, to an extent because this is a reasonable film, Save the Last Dance. I feel this video epitomizes my expectations of these type of films:
However, my expectations were wrong. What you have in Fish Tank is bold, painful realism. Without wanting to spoil the end, but inadvertently doing so, Mia's dreams are inevitably shattered. Her feelings of entrapment are embodied by the chained horse she finds in a travellers' camp, which she attempts to set free. By the end of the film the horse is pronounced dead, and she breaks down. Needless to say, a similiar consequence is met by Mia's attempts to escape from her situation.
Stylistically the film is gritty and relentless as its protagonist. Any establishing shots are unaesthetic glimpses of the concrete cityscape, while we are often confronted with over the shoulder shots of Mia, increasing the sense of claustrophobia and voyeurism of looking in on her life.
Fish Tank is violent, visceral, loud and rude. But it is also emotive, intriguing and, at some times, tender. Yes, the C word is used more often than the shot changes, but here is something unique, subversive of genre stereotype and all the more refreshing because of this.
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