Fish Tank

There's a moment part way through Fish tank that's as swooningly erotic as anything you'll see this year. Handsome, charming Connor gives 15 year old Mia a piggy back after she cuts her foot helping him to catch a fish (by hand!) The film slows imperceptibly; the sound of Connor's breathing is amplified slightly; and Mia brings her face as close to Connor's as she dares. The sequence perfecly captures the rush of desire that Mia feels for her mother's new boyfriend. And who can blame her? Connor's the one person who offers any encouragement. The very definition of a stroppy teen, Mia seems to have no friends (hardly surprising considering how confrontational she is most of the time) and is on the verge of being sent to a special school. She rows constantly with her mother, the neighbours and just about everyone who crosses her path. Her only release in dancing in an empty flat. Connor praises her - you get the feeling that *noone* has ever done that - and even manages to win over her mouthy younger sister Tyler ("I like you. I'll kill you last" she tells him) As it turns out, the reason Connor is so good with children and at making them feel like they belong to a family is because he's a father himself. It's clear however that Mia doesn't view Connor as a father figure, but as an object of desire. The first time she sees him, in the kitchen early one morning, the camera adopts her POV as she gazes at his naked torso. Later she tests the camera her loans her by filming him getting dressed. Even as his presence seems to make her mother happy, Mia and Connor edge towards the inevitable. Miraculously, it doesn't feel like a tawdry act of exploitation but it nevertheless destroys the brief idyll and reveals Connor's secret. The contrast of his family and Mia's couldn't be more sharp. A spacious, well-kept house and garden instead of an untidy, cramped flat; a neat, well-behaved daughter instead of two neglected tearaways; and a smartly-dressed wife and loving mother instead of the slatternly Joanne. You have to wonder why he stayed so long. And yet, the film is actually compassionate. Rather than being the villain of the piece, Connor is a likeable, kind and generous man, and we never hate him for his actions. Mia, for all her impulsiveness and anger, has a good heart - we might first see her rowing with another girl and headbutting her, but we warm to her when we see her genuine concern for the travellers' elderly horse. She acts before thinking, which almost has tragic consequences, but there's hope. She pulls back from the brink and might even be making a brighter future for herself as she departs with one of the traveller boys. There's even a tentative rapprochement with her mother as the 3 members of the family dance in the flat prior to her departure.