MovieChat Forums > Fish Tank (2009) Discussion > Meaning and message of this movie?

Meaning and message of this movie?


What do you think, if at all, it was? Maybe to state that in certain parts of UK and the world teen girls often live a troubled life and that a new male boyfriend can seem caring and appealing enough but then turn around and betray you as well as use you in a criminally unacceptable way (commit statutory rape or underage sex act) and also some mothers may terribly not get along with their daughters, and young girls can also fight other young girls and even threaten younger ones but in the end men like Connor are the real trouble and danger and his act is undeniably worse.

And maybe one of the messages is that still, well, even if it doesn't make them evil villains and what they are doing isn't necessarily against the law, mothers and daughters and sisters need to really get along with each other in family and be wary and skeptical of letting strangers into their lives. But for his deed, independently of all of that, someone like Connor is to be held to account and responsible no matter what, and taking advantage of Mia like that is undeniably horrible and wrong and on a different level than whatever mistreatment Mia may have gotten from those other girls, her sister and mother and even with her and that other child.

I guess something like this is what the movie was trying to say. In some ways, its almost a lighter and British more modern version of something like the New Zealand drama "Once Were Warriors" (1994) where the main wife beater character was indeed wrong for doing what he did, but Uncle Bully was even WORSE and in that film even, although it is open to a debate, the fact that he physically turned against him is meant to perhaps be seen as a somewhat redeeming quality of him, even if it is just a coincidence, yeah we dislike him for beating his wife, but we despise Uncle Bully for what he did even MORE.

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I guess I don't think this movie has a specific intended overall meaning or theme. From what I've read about Andrea Arnold, she creates her stories starting with strong visual images and brief observations of people in day-day life. From there she seems to build realistically flawed characters and sort of lets them 'decide' how to act. With Fish Tank, we are properly immersed into the sensory reality of Mia, which results in a kind of slice-of-life/documentary feel, with some poetic touches and a strong sense of identification with the main character.

I think this is part of what makes the movie so great though. Whilst Arnold is probably drawing on a lot of her own subconscious feelings, the meaning of the movie is ultimately what you take away from it, as each viewer will watch it from a different psychological stance :)

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I prefer directors to make a statement. "The movie is what you make it!!" is often a cop-out. Would have loved the director to actually make a stance....

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