#katie jarvis

Starring Michael Fassbender, Katie Jarvis, and Kierston Wareing

Directed by Andrea Arnold

Fifteen-year-old Mia Williams (Jarvis) lives a crummy life in London public housing. She’s lost all her friends and has been kicked out of school. Mia’s only escape from her abusive mother (Wareing) and the handful of social workers is through dance. Her life is changed when her mother’s new boyfriend, Conor (Fassbender), comes to live with the family while he sorts out family issues. Mia begins to fall for Conor as he encourages her to pursue dance and becomes a supportive friend. However, when Conor makes a sexual advance at Mia, the nature of their relationship changes, and Conor’s truth is inevitably revealed.

Mia’s low income, urban environment traps and tortures her. Any attempt she makes at freedom ends in injury. When she tries to release a horse chained to the ground, she gets assaulted and robbed by the horse’s owners. When Mia ventures into the river to catch a fish with Conor, the only audio is of her mother and sister shouting insults at her, and she cuts her foot. When Conor explains that if he could be any animal, he’d choose to free like an eagle, Mia and her family retort that this is stupid, since he would likely get shot. Unlike Conor, who comes from a middle class suburb, the girls understand that the vulnerability of liberty will only hurt them. Because of this, Mia is afraid of making herself emotionally vulnerably, especially to Conor. The slum they live in also corrupts innocence. Mia’s sister, Tyler, is a prime example of this. She’s only a young child, but throughout the film we see her curse, smoke, and dress scantily; her mother even hints that she will soon be kicked out of school. However, when characters like Conor actually treat her like the child see is, she acts accordingly, so her loss of innocence is purely external. Various establishing shots of the housing development convey a similar message. In one scene, a shot of small boys playing innocently cuts to a shot of older boys acting like thugs. The only solidarity we see between Mia and her mother is when they both dance to Nas rapping “life’s a bitch and then you die.” Its as if the only think the two relate on is how unfair their situation is.

The opening shot is just audio of Mia panting in exhaustion, illustrating how tired she is with her life. She then proceeds to call her friend, Kailey, and beg for forgiveness. Mia is intrinsically obstinate, so she must really be desperately lonely to reach out like that. She has no friends or family that care. Her mother is abusive and negligent, going as far as to tell Mia that she wanted to have her aborted. Also, Mia’s father is nowhere in sight. Because she is so lonely on all fronts, her attention from Conor seems to fill all of these boxes. She wants him romantically, sexually, as a friend, and as a father. Mia’s confused feeling for him are only muddled further by his mixed signals. Only moments before his sexual advance, he holds her as though she’s his child or friend. Her convoluted love for him makes her an easy target to his manipulation.

Mia sees the horse as a symbol for herself. Neither of them belong in such a harsh, restrictive environment. Just as the horse is bolted to the ground, Mia feels trapped in her situation. This also relates to the title of the film, since she feels stuck in her circumstances like a fish is in a tank. Mia is completely powerless but wishes to escape. We see her watching television shows about wealthy Londoners, envisioning a better life for herself. This is why she feels so compelled to free the horse; she is vicariously freeing herself. The horse is also white, symbolizing Mia’s innocence. Similar color imagery is used throughout the film. For instance, Mia says she wishes to become a white tiger. Also, during her sexual encounter, Mia is wearing white, and Conor is wearing black. Throughout the remainder of the film, she wears nothing but black. When the horse’s owner tells her they had to shoot her because she was old and sick, Mia breaks down in tears. This reaction is her realization that her hope and purity are dead as well.

There is a tie between dancing and sexuality. All of the other female characters use dancing as a way to express sexuality; Mia’s mother, Kailey and her new friends, and the women at the audition all dance erotically. Mia, on the other, is far less sexual. She dresses in loose clothing and has a far less voluptuous build. Her dancing doesn’t evoke sexuality; it is her mode of escape not eroticism. However, Mia feels she must become sexual in order to be loved. When she sees her mother grinding on Conor, Mia goes to put on more makeup. She also tries wearing her hair down once she’s told it makes her look more feminine.

I love this movie. Arnold (dir) has an interesting technique that promotes fantastic acting. She only sends the actors the script of the scene they’re about to perform, so the later twists and turns are kept a secret. This makes mini-method situations, creating authentic performances and preserving plot twists. The element of realism evoked both by the acting and the camera work really impressed me.

19/20