Little Fish

It’s been some seven years since Rowan Woods’ confronting drama, The Boys, was released to critical acclaim. And while his work in the intervening years has been glossy TV products, his latest film sees a return to the gritty, unassuming world to which he seems drawn. His no-frills style of filmmaking and his fascination with the marginalised and the wayward in society takes him to Cabramatta in Little Fish .

Cate Blanchett stars as Tracy Heart. Thirty-something and living at home with her mum (Noni Hazlehurst), Tracy’s biggest ambitions are to own her own small business and stay off heroin. But it’s hard to forge a new future when the past is right there with her.

While her mum is a world-wearied tower of strength, Tracy is surrounded by reminders of her dangerous past. Her younger brother Ray (Martin Henderson) is a regular drug user and plans to cash in on his shady connections. Family friend and former footballer Lionel Dawson (Hugo Weaving) has lost almost everything to his addiction.

If staying clean and getting ahead weren’t hard enough, things get even more complicated when Tracy’s ex-boyfriend Jonny Nguyen (Dustin Nguyen) returns after four years away. With a flash suit and a fancy car Jonny promises that he’s clean and working a legitimate job. He wants to pick up where they left off but Tracy’s not sure she can trust him. As she well knows truth is a casualty of addiction.

With excellent performances Little Fish is a bleak and believable film. Its characters are disquietingly real. Mercifully free of the quirkiness that dogs most Australian films, Little Fish is nevertheless an uncomfortable movie. Despite strong acting – particularly from Hazlehurst and Weaving – there is a slightness to the story that is disappointing. Frequent extreme language and drug use also make it an unsettling experience. The language, while granting authenticity to the seedy world depicted, descends into a drone of swearing weakening the script.

There is much to recommend this film – the cast is uniformly good, the subject matter emotionally involving, the relationships and conflicts believable. But the rawness and bitter reality of addiction, deceit and dysfunction make it a difficult movie to enjoy.

Throughout the film the various characters make choices that affect their own future and also the lives of those around us. They might feel like little fish in a big pond but they are still responsible for their actions.

While there are several scenes depicting and discussing drug use there is little glamour associated with either using or addiction. In Rowan Wood’s Little Fish the world of drugs is a sad and destructive world which promises only pain and disappointment. It’s a clear picture of how life is not meant to be. Tracy can’t get away from her past. It shapes the way people see her, how people treat her. It’s a marked contrast to how things are under God. The astonishing nature of grace is that it removes the taint of our sin and shame. Through God’s mercy those who trust in him can start again knowing that God holds none of our past against us.

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