Little Fish (2006)

Pretty Good

Brilliant and touching

A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A solid Australian drama that is filled with some good performances from a very talented cast. Blanchett stands at the very top, of course, having the meatiest character in the film and doing great stuff (reminds me a lot of her work in Notes on a Scandal, in just its sheer desperation). The film perhaps does a pretty repetitive job of sort of highlighting its themes, but its still rather effective. It's nice to see Hugo Weaving in a role that's nor The Lord of the Rings (but rather, that's sort of my own fault). Overall, I don't think this is great, but it's definitely a good watch. It's grim, well-paced, gritty while never being too hard-to-watch, and ultimately, recommended definitely.

I found Little Fish way too slow and even turgid, it has a ponderousness which is at times nice, but frequently boring. The big problem is most of the dramatic action that is effecting the characters has already happened years before the film takes place, and at times when the various characters have intense moments about these long gone events it just makes the acting seem melodramatic because we haven't seen or felt the events they are talking about. In fact the whole piece comes across as a third act in a much larger story, and if we'd seen these original events the characters and their actions would seem much more natural.Unlike Animal Kingdom which has similar pacing but which only grows in intensity as the characters unravel because of things they are doing now, the pacing here just slows everything and waters down what interesting content there is. It's alright for the theme to be looking at people struggling with their lives after these big events, except there was way too much of them struggling with these past events rather than their lives now - all of the emotional and narrative action is centred around things we haven't seen and which aren't really explained clearly either.Hugo Weaving is brilliant and the film is worth seeing just for his performance alone. There was something about Cate Blanchett's performance I didn't like - it seemed just a bit too much of a one note take on her - there was lots of hair flicking and annoyance - but the character wasn't infused with any kind of nobility as she tried to overcome the effects of her past wrongs - that would have made for a much more engaging performance and given us some empathy for her. But then again maybe she really did hit the nail on the head because if she's selfish enough to become a drug addict in the first place there's no reason why some of those character traits wouldn't have carried over afterwards as well.Maybe as film maker myself I find it frustrating that a film that is clearly not ready to be made simply because of the script, can get made with a good budget and a good cast. The photography and music were very nice though.

You can see how Australian families and their typical life. They can't be happy all the time.Sometimes ex-boyfriends,sometimes relatives who use or sell drugs come and ruin everything.their marriage never keep going good but they make friendship lots of people and they have lots of lovers.Beside the whole bed life sometimes one girl listens music and remember past that remind her happy days.when the music ands hopeless life continuous...I cant say that they will be happy when they get some money for her business because every time bad things can be occur due to these people's life without spirit.However they remind life soul when one of them die or they lost everything.

One of the users whose review I have just read wrote that he/she really wanted to like the movie... I had the same problem... Hugo Weaving whose amazing performance in V For Vendetta I saw just before,Cate Blanchett who is always worth watching and admiring, Sam Neill... And a trailer that intrigued me, promising an interesting story... Yes, yes, I know, I am naive... never judge a movie by a trailer... But I just couldn't help it... it reminded me of Me and You and Everyone we know, a movie that I really really liked... But, after watching Little fish, I felt nothing... Maybe a bit of confusion, because I wasn't sure what to think, after a movie that gives you nothing to think about... I felt empty, and sorry for the time I spent watching it... A movie with no story... I felt sorry for those great actors... They deserve better, cause they always give their best. So I have no objections to their job, brilliant as always... But that is definitely not enough to make me say this is a good movie...