Fish Tank was met with a swarm of critical accolades upon its cinematic opening and they were richly deserved. The purity of Katie Jarvis’ performance as Mia – her eyes so tenderly hinting at the hidden depths of emotion, ambition and desire for love in a character fighting a neverending struggle with the world around her – was a revelation. And Andrea Arnold’s direction was a marvel, full of careful spotlights on the individual objects and landscape details that make up Mia’s world, as well as beautifully exhibiting sensitive, sparely-used blurs and intimate yet unobtrusive camerawork.
But, amongst the plaudits, something was overlooked: Arnold’s script. It was entirely predictable that this urban drama would be full of ‘fucks’ and ‘cunts’ and all kinds of insults, but the subtlety with which they were used was not. To help illustrate this, here’s a worthy comparison: if ever there was a perfect example of a script that has seemingly been scattered with swearing and insults rather indiscriminately, it’s 44 Inch Chest. Insert ‘fucking’ between any two words of your choice, no matter how unnecessary it may appear to be, and you’re some way to recreating most of John Hurt’s lines.
Arguably, in this case, it does work – it might be considered the lazy shortcut to make a scene boil with Pinteresque verbal violence in this very theatrical movie, but it is effective. It’s certainly hard not to laugh when Ray Winstone’s character is asked, “What do you say, Colin? You’re the one in the cunt hat.” But swap one insult for another and you probably wouldn’t notice the difference. Try placing profanity out of context in this film and you’ll struggle – there’s nowhere in this script that it would feel out of place, even when the subject is love and affection.
This makes the care and attention that Arnold must have put into Fish Tank’s use of abuse all the more striking. At times, yes, it is used simply for out-and-out insults, but as the water in Mia’s fish tank has been starved of any kind of positive vocabulary, negative language is adopted as an ersatz method of expressing other emotions too. It’s as if the taboos have been reversed: it’s perfectly acceptable for two young sisters to call each other ‘fuckface’ and ‘cuntface’, but they could never dare to tell one another they love each other. And so, when they do want to do just that, they have to revert to insults: “I hate you” says one. “I hate you too,” says the other. It’s used as a reflex defence mechanism to protect a vulnerability (just your straightforward ‘fuck off’) and an indication of affection.
Just as Mia’s urban landscape that initially appears barren and ugly can turn out to have elements of beauty within it, so her ostensibly cold, harsh language occasionally hides warmth and sensitivity.
Fish Tank is released on DVD January 25.
