Little Fish

Plot synopsis:
Little Fish is about Tracy Heart (Cate Blanchett), a former heroin addict who is desperately trying to escape her past and achieve her goals and dreams. Tracy lives with her mother (Noni Hazlehurst) and brother in the Little Saigon area (Cabramatta) in Sydney, Australia, where heroin is readily available.
She is in need of money to become a partner in the video store that she works in, but her loan applications are repeatedly rejected by finance providers, as a result of her past criminal record, poor repayments of credit card debt, history of drug use and lack of collateral. Tracy lies to both her mother and her boss at the video store, pretending she has received the loan. This is one of the recurring themes of the movie, the casual ways people lie to each other for convenience.
Tracy is trying to help her drug addicted stepfather and former NRL star Lionel (Hugo Weaving) to kick his heroin addiction. After a four-year absence in Vancouver, her former boyfriend Jonny Nguyen (Dustin Nguyen), also a former heroin addict, has come back into her life. Jonny, who now dresses in business suits, claims to have employment as a stockbroker at a large firm and suggests he may be able to obtain the money Tracy desires through share trading. The romance between Tracy and Jonny is rekindled.
Upon visiting Jonny's alleged workplace, Tracy discovers Jonny has lied to her and is not in fact employed as a stockbroker. Jonny has become involved in a drug deal with her brother Ray, and Tracy also chooses to become involved in the deal as she sees this as the only means of providing the finance she needs to become a partner in the video store.
Tracy, Ray and Jonny set out to execute the deal, which ends in tragedy. Tracy's courage and deep love for those she cares about are notable in the climactic scenes of the film.

Tags: murder, violence, flashback, insanity, melodrama, tragedy, revenge

Review:
Tracy (Cate Blanchett) lives with the legacy of her former addiction, faced with temptation to fall back to her old ways, and constantly hitting a brick wall in her attempts to start her own business and escape her stagnant existence.
Rowan Woods' previous film, "The Boys" (1997) had a certain detachment as he examined the psychology of the perpetrators of a particularly nasty crime - watching it was like looking at bugs through a microscope, though it did feature a truly brilliant performance by David Wenham.
In this film from a script by Jacqueline Perske he takes a warmer and certainly a lighter look at some rather unprepossessing people living in the south-western suburbs of Sydney - specifically Cabramatta.Tracey is a former heroin addict, clean for the last four years but with a less than perfect credit record, who is trying to buy a share in the video shop she is working in so she can expand into the internet gaming business (hey, isn't that illegal in Australia?).
Her Vietnamese-Australian ex-boyfriend Johnny suddenly arrives on the scene after four years away and is soon involved in a drug deal with her one-legged (and rather stupid) brother Ray. The "Little Fish" of the title turn out to be those little plastic fish than come with soy sauce inside them in East Asian restaurants, recycled to contain amphetamines, but it could equally describe most of the characters.It's all very complicated and to be honest the plot is a bit of a monkey puzzle  I have the feeling there might be a few holes in it - but the film is really about the struggle to climb out of the mire.
Martin Henderson is a wonderful dumb Ray.Perhaps the most impressive feature of the film is the up-close and personal photography (just about every scene looks like it was done with a hand-held camera) combined with some very imaginative fade-in and fade-out.
Director Rowan Woods and his collaborators have crafted a totally absorbing urban drama about complex homosapiens whose lives have been compromised by drugs and various addictions.Cate Blanchett is Tracy, the film's lynch-pin, a Western suburbs girl whose ambitions to get ahead are thwarted by financial and personal skeletons from her past.Scribe Jacqueline Perske manipulates a tangled web of characters ranging from Sam Neil's retiring drug baron Brad to Hugo Weaving's failed yuppie junkie Lionel.
Noni Hazlehurst, in a riveting performance, plays family matriarch Janelle, a woman so crippled by regret and betrayal, she can hardly stand upright.The tone is a few degrees lighter than Woods' brilliant "The Boys" and the Cabramatta milieu is broader, but this is still a beautifully balanced character piece with top notch performances and a restrained third act that avoids the usual clichés.Supporting turns by Susie Porter (as Jenny) and Joel Tobeck (as Moss) are exceptional.Though some climactic clarity might have been helpful, this is, nevertheless, emotionally graphic and pictorially intense cinema..
The cinematography is wonderful, the use of many washes raise the mood and tension to higher levels, tightening the atmosphere of depression.This has a stellar cast; Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Noni Hazlehurst, Sam Neill, Lisa McCune, Martin Henderson and Dustin Nguyen all give strong performances, not a single flaw in the acting.
Hazlehurst brings a performance so shockingly different, this is not the Nomi you know from 'Play School'.The only thing i felt was wrong with Little Fish is its just abit to long.
Cate Blanchett plays Tracy, an Australian woman in a Sydney suburb tempted back into the world of drug dealing after suffering a prior tragedy, years ago.
She has some friends, some family, a cute little job in a video store and generally gets on well with life following her prior excursion into the world of the 'don't go there'.But complications arise and the film begins to loose its focus around about the hour mark.
The characters in this film are cardboard and uninteresting, most of the time the film will be more interested in giving them funky sounding ring-tones than developing them beyond mere people who stand and talk for minutes on end.
One character wants to get a new floor for her apartment; Tracy herself wants to open a shop in the said area and the general plot goal throughout is to generally avoid the drugs business and stay away from the wrong people  how exciting.
Jonny (Nguyen) is an ex-flame and a somewhat boring love interest that slows the film down needlessly; the scenes around Lionel and constant reminder of his past glories are old after the first time and after pottering about with Tracy for a long while whilst revolving around her past drug problem and how 'stable' she actually is, it just gets tiresome.The film throws in a lot of unneeded shots of Tracy swimming and the romantic interest of Jonny gives Dustin Nguyen an excuse to show us his muscles (the film was written by a woman, mind) but the underwater shots exist to merely force the film into the realm of the 'artistic' and the inserted TV footage is a silly attempt at getting the film labelled post-modern.
You can detest and love her, feel sympathy and disdain and find by movie's end you're aware that she could so easily be you.Included in the cast as perennials the likes of Noni Hazlehurst, Lisa McCune and Sam Neill all played sound parts but not a patch on the leads.
As Cate Blanchett said herself, 'Little Fish' is about the people between the middle class and lower class, those who are struggling with their daily lives and are largely ignored.
This film is about a woman who tries to get her life back on track after 4 years of heroin addiction.I find the plot confusing, and the story poorly told.
Hugo Weaving whose amazing performance in V For Vendetta I saw just before,Cate Blanchett who is always worth watching and admiring, Sam Neill...
Writer Jacqueline Perske and Director Rowan Woods chalk up another successful Australian film in LITTLE FISH, an intense, very personal drama about how illegal drugs affect communities, families and individuals.
The story begs patience from the viewer as it is gratefully one that does not spell everything out for the viewer, but instead introduces the characters slowly and with hints of backgrounds that bring them to the moments of crisis the time-frame of the film uses.Taking place in the Little Saigon area of Sydney, Tracy Heart (Cate Blanchett) is a recovered junkie who lives with her mother Janelle (Noni Hazlehurst) and partial amputee brother Ray (Martin Henderson), each trying to make ends meet in a life previously destroyed by drug addiction.
Everything comes to a head when 1) Tracy is desperate without her needed bank loan, 2) Tracy's Vietnamese ex-lover Jonny (Dustin Nguyen) returns from Vancouver where his family sent him to avoid the persecution of rehab in Sydney, 3) Brad retires leaving Lionel without a source of drugs or love and Lionel is replaced by a quasi-normal Steven (Joel Tobeck) who kicks the last part of the film into a spin.
There are no solutions to anyone's problems: things just happen and the characters respond in the best way they can with the ominous cloud of drug addiction shading their lives and futures.The script is terse and smart and the direction is relentlessly realistic and well paced.
Cate Blanchett gives a sterling portrayal of the very complex Tracy, and Hugo Weaving, Noni Hazelhurst, Sam Neill, Dustin Nguyen, and Martin Henderson are superb.
Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill are brilliant in roles that have borrowed much from Oz sporting and media characters, Noni Hazelhurst is convincing as a suburban mum weighed down by lack of love and betrayal.
Having all our great Australian actors coming back to make an Australian film does not automatically make a good film, and in this case it certainly hasn't.Performances by Hugo and Cate while good, did not make up for a generally average, unoriginal script and storyline..
It appears that the car was driven by the boyfriend.Nothing interesting or original or entertaining.In addition, it appears that Cate was a former junkie and who appears to be her old man wants help getting drugs because he also is badly hooked.Just crap and more crap.Good actors don't make a bad screenplay a good movie..
Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Dustin Nguyen, Sam Neill, everyone acts their head off, but to no avail.
Little Fish, the 2005 film from Australian director Rowan Woods is an intimate drama that follows the life of Tracy Heart portrayed by Cate Blanchett and her family and close friends.
Blanchett puts in another strong performance as Tracy, once again transforming into the character and letting the audience join her to the film's conclusion.
All the performances are outstanding -- but the casting (particularly of Cate Blanchett as an x-junkie) feel reminiscent of masterworks theatre version of kitchen sink working class drama.
It is not like "Requiem for a dream", but genuinely portraying stories of people who encounter the uncertainty and hopelessness of life and future.The casts in this movie are great.
Her voice fits well and builds up a great atmosphere for the movie.To sum up, it is one of the best Australian movie in 2005, and for people who lives in Australia, please support the local film industry and local talents..
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.
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.
I was drawn into the movie because of the cast, a powerhouse trio in Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill.
I am a fan of Australian drama having given high marks to such films as "Tom White", "Japanese Story", "Three Dollars" and "Look Both Ways" and also of many of the fantastic cast in this film (Cate, Sam, Hugo) but I have to say I found this film boring.The premise and story are interesting and reasonably original.
"Little Fish" plunges us into the middle of a series of complicated relationships strained by drug addiction.The debut feature film script by Jacqueline Perske respects the intelligence of the characters and the audience by not slowing down for explication, but lets the past that binds each interconnected family gradually be revealed through their edgy interactions.
Both Hugo Weaving and Sam Neill are almost unrecognizable surprises in very masculine roles where they use their physicality in ways they don't usually demonstrate in films.Director Rowan Woods has a few stylistic quirks, particularly whooshing close-ups.
There is a continuing visual theme of water - from swimming pools to the ocean to showers and more-- that seems more sodden than symbolic of Sydney's beach culture, particularly in a rather uncomfortable looking love scene that seems more desperate than erotic.The locations and ensemble seem to well capture multi-ethnic contemporary Sydney and the tensions and biases between ethnic groups, particularly a working class that feels left behind compared to Asian immigrants with more international experiences and ties, here Viet Namese.The continuing struggle of recovering from addiction and its echoing impact on family, particularly parents, and friends is shown very effectively that we haven't seen in many films, as in "Down to the Bone" or "Requiem for a Dream".
But at the end I am left dissatisfied.For a movie about drugs, guns and addicts you get the feeling that you finally want to see what they are actually like.
i wanted to see a movie centered around the drug use and abuse and hardships and entertaining events that a character would have to go through if addicted to heroin...
When Ray and Jonny associate to Moss (Joel Tobeck), the assistant of the retired criminal boss Bradley 'The Jockey' Thompson (Sam Neill), in drug dealing, Tracey is convinced by Jonny to join them and raise the necessary money for her business along the weekend."Little Fish" is a heavy drama, based on losers, people addicted in drugs, showing how difficult the recovery is.
Blanchett's character says to her mother late in the film that she desperately wants the loan to buy the business she works in because she must, after four years, end the merry-go-round of waiting on people and getting up and going to work-she wants to own the business herself.
Cate should have seen Woman of the Dunes from 50 or so years ago and she might have morphed her life into something less destructive.Beyond the philosophical implications of the film, the actors did outstanding work-their roles could easily be said to be individual best in all cases.
I took the film to see Hugo Weaving, instead I found a self pitying junkie.It's not that the movie was not good, or that the acting was not good, it just didn't fit with my mood and it was all dialog and a bit of crying here and there, a little anger outburst, a bit of crying some more...
Visceral could be seen as an over-used word but there is none other that could so encapsulate this film.On some level I am aware that a film is made up of many facets and that no one facet should be allowed to dominate, in the end it is the people, as portrayed, that I remember.I am not saying "actors" because Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neil et al didn't act - they metamorphosed into their parts.
There were no over-acting and histrionics in this film, and until the end, we really feel for Blanchet'ts character, and the life she is trying to keep going.
We see her at the bank when she is denied a line of credit for her business, and we feel empathy for her, can even relate to the situation.Sam Neill is also very good as a retiring dealer, and the story is not glamorized or portrayed as something desirable (unlike some Hollywood films dealing with addiction).The soundtrack is effective and haunting, the scenes at the beach are memorable and sad.
The intensity of the love between Cate B's 'Tracy' and Dustin Nguyen's 'Johnny' is riveting: you cannot look away when these 2 characters are working through their respective past hurts.
If you are into things about Australia (as I am) you might be tempted to see this movie.If you succumb to the temptation, here is what you can expect to see:* A movie full of losers with capital L's.* A movie full of drug addiction.* No discernible plot.* No apparent purpose for making this flick.* A beginning and end that seem to be totally disconnected from the middle.* People who tell lies to try to compensate for their failures as human beings.* Losers who enable each other to stay losers.* A mother who is a failure at raising and disciplining her children, presumably compensating for the lack of a father by spoiling her offspring to death and anguishing over the result.One positive note here: Cate does a wonderful job of portraying her character (Tracy), who by the way finally shows a bit of spunk at the end, though this hardly rights the wrong she committed by embezzling money in the first place.
Or maybe I remained detached because I have learned that to care about terminal losers is a waste of love and nothing in the end had showed me that she would eventually turn out OK.The only other good thing I can see about this movie is that it is a hard look at junkies and what can happen to someone who is thinking about dabbling in drugs.
I didn't even like Cate in this and I usually love her.I'm also tired of movies about drug addicts.
If watching actors nail roles is your idea of film then see Little Fish, but if story captures you, beware.
The characters are also little fish swimming in a pool of drugs, life gone wrong, fighting life's currents in a rushing stream.Tracey, exquisitely played by Blanchett, says in the third act something to the effect, "I just want the money for my business." Don't we all.
It's a cliché, I know, but there are better ways to spend your time than watching this movie -- washing dishes or doing the ironing spring to mind.Despite having some top rate Australian talent in it (Sam Neill, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving) it starts nowhere and stays there right till the end.
Tracy(Cate Blanchett, brilliant as ever)has been sober from a nasty heroin habit(among other drugs)introduced to her by mum's ex-beau, a once prominent soccer star, Lionel(Hugo Weaving, who gives a haunting powerful performance).
But it makes engrossing viewing thanks to the high level of acting by the whole cast, while the excellent waif like Cate Blanchett gives one of her most rewarding performances playing the brittle Tracy, a recovering junkie as does Hugo Weaving the addicted father.
He features in Little Fish, along with other stars such as Cate Blanchett and Sam Neill.
The Australian film LITTLE FISH stars Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill, and Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in the Matrix Trilogy).