Fish Tank Analysis



Fish tank is a 2009 british drama written and directed by Andrea Arnold. The film follows Mia who is a 15 year old girl who lives with her mum and sister.

One of the main things i wanted to talk about regarding Fish Tank was the cinematography. The biggest part of cinematography in the film relates mainly to the title. The title of the film 'fish tank' implies entrapment and this is shown through the cinematography by showing tight cramped shots which implies this sense of wanting to escape and traps. This is also shown through the colours used in the shots, usually they're bleak or washed out colours. This implies the bleakness and depressing situation she's in.

Fish tank is clearly supposed to be socially realistic and it explores this themes through a few key ways in the film. The set design tends to be gritty and realistic of a council estate. The kitchen always seems to be extremely messy and dirty which implies there isn't much unity within the family because no one cleans the kitchen despite 3 people living there. The set design is played around with as the movie progresses as when the mums new boyfriend comes around for the second time the kitchen and the rest of the house seems to be clearly cleaner than previously, this shows that the boyfriend, Connor, has bought some unity to the family and has almost helped the family by bringing them together.

The themes of family and unity are explored in detail through the film. One of the main ways it does this is through characters and dialogue. In the film Connor almost acts as a saviour as when he arrives everything starts to get better for the family. One of the turning points in the film where Connor puts Mia to bed, this is hugely significant because you get the impression that he might rape her or do something else so when on actual fact he doesn't you get the impression that he is actually a decent man. You think this throughout the film as he does nicer and nicer things but you always have that doubt in your mind about him. This doubt then confirms when it turns out he has another family. The significance of this is that it turns out that all your perceptions of family and unity in the film are changed and broken.


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