Little Fish (2005)
Reviewed by Rosie
April 15, 2006
I got my DVD of "Little Fish" yesterday and I watched it last night. I figured with the marathon weekend, it is probably the only time I have to sit and watch a movie. No, in case you are wondering, I am not running, I was lazy this past November, did not run Philadelphia and so did not qualify for Boston, but I am doing the next best thing by volunteering, so hopefully all the excitement will rub off on me and I would get motivated for next year.
OK, enough of running, back to "Little Fish", which is a story of an ex-drug addict Tracy, played by Cate Blanchett, who has been clean for four years now and is trying to stay clean and rebuild her life. However, she soon realizes that she can never escape her past completely. She naively thought that since she has been clean for several years and has worked hard, people are going to trust her again, give her a break, and give her a second chance.
Tracy has a dream of owning her own business. She has been working in a Video Shop for the past several years, and now she wants to remodel the back room and turn it into a Video Game Room. Her vision is to make the business grow and hopefully some day own it. Her boss is all for it too and cannot wait for Tracy to take over. There is only one problem; she needs money to buy computers and start the process. So she puts together a business plan and applies for the bank loan, however because she does not have a good credit, they all turn her down.
And that is not the last of her problem! Her mom's once boyfriend Lionel, played by Hugo Weaving, who was actually the one who got her addicted to Heroin in the first place, asks for her support in beating his addiction, on his own. However, in the middle of detoxification, he cannot handle it and asks Tracy to go buy him some drug!
And lastly, Tracy's old flame Jonny, played by Dustin Nguyen, comes to town after a long absence, and at the first glance it looks like he has beaten his addiction and now has a successful career, basically he has made it. So Tracy not only cannot make her own dream come true, she has to sit back and watch how the dream of her ex-boyfriend has come true, and if that is not enough to push her over the edge, Lionel is going to do it for her, by sending her directly to the drug dealers!
So basically, this is the story this movie tells and now let's move to Tracy's brother, Ray, played by MH. What I thought was very interesting about Ray's storyline was that he was not bitter that he had lost part of one leg. Even though Jonny was the driver when they had the accident, Ray was not mad at him and did not held him responsible. It seemed to me that he was as warm and friendly toward Jonny as he probably was before the accident, which was really refreshing to watch.
Now if Ray is all best bud with Jonny, his mom Janelle, played by Noni Hazlehurst, is not. Janelle came down on Jonny pretty hard in the scene where they are celebrating Ray's birthday. She cut Tracy off to brag about her and her job and later showed how angry she was of the accident and its aftermath. But the next day she confessed to Tracy that she did not know why she did that. Why she acted so strongly toward Jonny.
I thought that Janelle's boat was rocked pretty hard that day. The two people who had hurt her two kids suddenly had come to her life after a long absence. First Lionel, who gave Tracy heroin, showed up, and then Jonny, who in Janelle's eyes was responsible for Ray's disability. So I think it was kind of out of character for her to be this in your face kind of person. I also thought the only reason she cut Tracy off to say that Tracy was starting her own business was to let Jonny know that he is not the only one who is successful now and supposedly has turned his life around for better, she wanted him to know that Tracy was doing very well too.
Anyhow, back to Ray again, LOL, the interaction between Ray and Tracy, even though was very small, was very enjoyable to watch. I thought Ray played the rule of the little brother so very well; he teased Tracy mercilessly, commenting a few times that she has lost her touch with Jonny; that was fun to watch. Also in that same birthday scene when Janelle is bragging to Jonny that Tracy is starting her own business, Tracy right away lies that she got the bank loan, to which Ray's response is, "that is amazing, it is. It is really amazing!", which was not only funny, especially with MH's face expression; I thought he looked really cute in that scene, but I also got the impression that Ray read Tracy clearly that she was lying, and this was his way of letting her know that he knows, LOL.
My favorite MH scene was when Ray and Jonny are talking at the beginning of the movie. Ray asks Jonny to give him a ride somewhere, Jonny says he cannot, and Ray jokingly asks if he is afraid of having a crash, then Ray giggles. I loved MH's laugh here. Also MH spoke with his Australian accent, since this is an Australian production filmed in Sydney, and I thought his accent was so very cute, I liked it a lot.
I actually liked Ray's and Tracy's relationship with their mother the best. I thought both of the scenes where Ray and Tracy ask Janelle for a kiss was so sweet. I do that all the time too. My mom is not big on showing her love and affection to us kids, but I won't let her get a way with it, LOL. Every chance I get I extract a kiss or two from her, LOL, but of course I have to work for it, LOL, she does not kiss me as easily as Janelle kissed her kids, LOL.
One day my mom frantically called me and asked if I could break a lock? It turned out that she had locked her keys inside her suitcase and she needed to open that suitcase right away. So I went over and we tried to break the lock with no luck, LOL, we tried to cut the zipper off somehow, again no luck, then I went through my dad's very limited toolbox and found a small saw. The lock was a small one, so I though maybe I could cut it off. It took me 10 minutes and we were able to cut the lock. My mom was so very happy and relieved and kept saying thank you thank you. I told her that a simple thank you is not going to cut it, LOL, and that she has to kiss me if she is really thankful, LOL, yep I got three kisses out of her right there, LOL. I know, when it comes to parent's affection, I am more like a three year old than a thirtysomething, LOL.
Anyhow, back to the movie, I have to say that even though I liked the loving relation of mother and daughter, at first I got a bit surprised that why Tracy expects Janelle to wake her up in the morning. There is a scene where Tracy is complaining to Janelle that how come she did not wake her up and now she has missed her swim! I thought, hey lady you are 32, you should have announced your independent as soon as your age became a double digit number, LOL, why would you some 22 years later still expect your mom to wake you up in the morning, drive you to the swimming pool, stand there hold your towel and wait for you. But then I realized that Janelle was not doing that as Tracy's mother, she was doing that as Tracy's coach, as her support system. Aren't people who go through rehab always have a coach or partner to sort of carry them through tough times? I thought Janelle was acting as a support to Tracy not a mother. I also got the understanding that the swim was the replacement for the drug; as in replace a bad habit with a good habit.
I loved how the story displayed the behavior of two siblings, very close in age, growing up in the same environment, with similar shortcomings and opportunities, having more or less the same problem but responding so very differently to the same difficulty. As much as Tracy has grown and wants to make a good life for herself, Ray has not. He still gets pocket money from his mom and Janelle offers it to him easily. Ray still uses drug and continues his destructive behavior, while Tracy struggles every minute but does not want to give up her sobriety easily.
You know, even though MH's role was very small in this movie but I still enjoyed his acting. The few scenes that he did not have any lines, I thought his performance, his body language, displayed Ray's thoughts and emotions so very well.
I have to say I am certain that I would have missed this movie if I weren't admirable of MH's work and had not made it my mission not to miss any of his movies, LOL, it is a great movie, with a very real and genuine story and amazing performances. I only cringed when Lionel and his once lover Brad, played by Sam Neill, kissed. I just wished they had told us that they were lovers at some point, somehow differently, I mean in words of course not act, that was not a pleasant scene to watch, sorry!
