Film Analysis - 'Fish Tank' (Directed by Andrea Arnold)
The film 'Fish Tank' is a social drama with a running time of 123 minutes and was directed by Andrea Arnold's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Arnold); the film was produced with a budget of 3 million US dollars and grossed around 5.9 million US dollars profit.
The film covers a number of social topics, such as statutory rape, domestic abuse, differences in social class and the difficulties of growing up (as a teenager); the overall plot of the film develops at a relatively slow pace, however you could argue that this somewhat grounds the story in reality and makes all the significant events that the main protagonist experiences all that more meaningful.
The main setting of the film is based in an urban area, which seems to be used to emphasise/convey a crushing sense of imprisonment and depression; within the beginning and end of the film there is a combined total of three scenes that focus on a malnourished, sick, pure white horse; the inclusion of this animal seems to be purely for symbolic reasons however its existence and eventual death convey unto me ideas of hopelessness and the stagnation of personal development. from a personal perspective I believe the film focuses heavily on the idea that the main character feels stuck in her current state of living, and no matter what she does, none of her actions ever bring about any beneficial changes in her life, the few choice that we as the audience see having any real significance are at the very end of film when she chooses to leave her home and head to Wales, perhaps suggesting that she has decided to ultimately cut herself off from her old life and chooses instead to move on and seek freedom and life in independence (, perhaps suggesting that she has grown/matured from being an idiotic, unreasonable teenager).
The name of the film, 'Fish Tank' seems decidedly unrelated to the plot of the movie, however (this being purely self speculation,) I believe that the title is relating to the idea of being trapped within a glass cage (,a fish tank) and ultimately left to develop without any real way of progressing or growing beyond the confines of your surroundings and inner self.
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