Does the film Fish Tank have a happy ending and is the film hopeful about the youth?

Fish Tank (2009) is an independent film produced by the BBC – Andrea Arnold. It shows a 15 year old girl struggling to cope with living in an estate in Essex. Katie Jarvis, who plays Mia, had never acted before this film. A casting director spotted her having a fight with her boyfriend at a train station and offered her the role.

The main purpose of Fish Tank is to see Mia’s development of her identity within this setting and to see whether she acquires the same pathway that her mother took. Throughout Fish Tank, Mia has little hope of escaping and the representation of the horse (held in a gypsy camp) could signify that she is trying to be free, however near the end of the film the horse is then shot (to save it more pain) thus Mia could be linked to the horse, that although she will spend her life trying to escape her path, she will never truly win.

Fish Tank is a strong and unpredictable film because Mia is a resilient (but not perfect) character who refuses to allow her miserable circumstances to decide her pathway in life and growing up.

The ending of the film suggests freedom within the shot of the balloon floating away in a vast space.  However this is only within Mia’s character and not her sisters. Mia has escaped her mother’s pathway and that environment but consequently left her sister to go through the same lifestyle Mia has and we as the audience are left to wonder whether she too will escape once she turns 16.  Mia’s escape isn’t perfect in the sense that she is running away with someone of the same lifestyle and class as her, but it’s a better lifestyle than she has been used to. We are left wondering whether they will make it together and start a better life.

The film is hopeful in youth in a way that it suggests although Mia is stuck in this rut of lower class and poverty, she can create a way to handle them and even though it may not be the most direct route to handle the cause she is getting by. It suggests that youth hold more responsibility than adults as most of the time Mia is displayed as the more motherly person in the family compared to her actual mother who spends most of her time with her boyfriend (Connor) or drinking. This rubs off on Mia but only slightly as we see her stealing the bottle of vodka at her mother’s party. Thus suggesting to the audience that Mia is holds somewhat the same traits as her mum but also wants to change the way people perceive her. It shows that youth hold ambition in her dancing audition, and that they have goals whilst we see her mother slowly ruining what is left of her life.

At the ending of the film there is a scene in which all 3 family members dance in a line together, connoting that they are all similar in some aspects, but this is right before Mia runs away, therefore maybe suggesting that they will always be family but Mia doesn’t want to belong to them anymore.