Little Fish

A much talked about Australian film by director Rowan Woods, with the all-star Australian line-up of Cate Blanchett, Sam Neil, Hugo Weaving, Noni Hazelhurst and others. Little Fish is set in Cabramatta, with the tag line "the past is right here". To me this is a slightly terrifying if somewhat incomplete film.

It follows the story of Tracy (Blanchett), struggling to get her life back together a few years after giving up heroin and a failed relationship with Jonny (Dustin Nguyen). It revolves around her family and its somewhat tortured dynamics - Hugo Weaving is at his absolute best as the junkie father.

But what disturbs me most is the sense in which the film questions all your security. What identity or relationships or jobs do you put in place to keep yourself safe? What stops you from falling away into nothingness and despair? The film seems to suggest that there is not much between a comfortable suburban life, and going under in the (sub)urban emotional wasteland. There are rays of light from a family trying to stick together before they kill each other - but it's a torturous journey.

The film asks the viewer, "where is hope?" Not in a nihilistic challenge, but rather as an almost desperate plea - work out, no really work out, where is your hope? And most dramatically, what would happen if the thing you've pinned this hope to falls through?


3.75 out of 5 stars.