Little Fish

Review by Clint Morris

Unpack the camcorder from its bag, stick it atop a tripod, and then place it in an intersection somewhere in the little Saigon district of Cabramatta.

If it's set on automatic record, and is equipped with a long-enough tape, it should pretty much capture a great deal of life in the Sydney commune. What you really need though is someone like Rowan Woods to know when to pause and resume filming.

2005 marks the return of the decent Australian film. From the genuinely chilling Wolf Creek to the brilliantly performed Look Both Ways, it seems we've just about emerged from that deep hole we've been buried in for the past couple of years.

And with Little Fish, we're one step closer to the surface.

Featuring a who's who of the Australian Film Industry - and funnily enough, all actors have had to have been coaxed back from Hollywood to do it - Fish is a film as real as those escalating petrol prices, as easy to relate to as a twin sibling, and as satisfying as a thick and juicy piece of blue grenadier.

Blanchett - looking as 'plain Jane' as she ever has - gives life to Tracey Heart, a perceptibly unhappy and rather weary video-store manager in the Vietnamese-district of Cabramatta. "I'm 32. I live at home with my mum. I work in a video store," she reminds an ex-boyfriend.

Tracey's recently got over an addiction to heroin, but when a blast from the past returns, old feelings and bad habits start to seethe into her existence again, meeting head-on in an erratic, rather powerful culmination.

There's quite a diverse bunch of actors here. Hugo Weaving is Tracey's surrogate father, the gay, ex-footy champion, Lionel Dawson, whose life is no more than an endless drug trip. Sam Neill is Dawson's secret gay lover, Bradley 'The Jockey' Thompson, an ageing Mr Big of Sydney's underworld, while Martin Henderson is Tracey's amputee brother Ray, who gets in over his head with drug dealers. Dustin Nguyen is Jonny, Tracey's old boyfriend who has returned after four years in Vancouver, and Noni Hazelhurst plays Janelle, her incessantly distraught and sad mother.

The world seems to be closing in on all these characters - and at the end of the day their already-tumultuous lives are going to change forever.

Though the film's script dips in a few spots, and leaves things a little too much up to the audience to piece together, everything else seems to be in place. The performances are outstanding - especially Blanchett and Weaving - the direction is admirable, the cinematography is as brave as it is commendable, and when the choir of mostly-Vietnamese youngsters singing a haunting rendition of Cold Chisel's 'Flame Trees' kicks in towards the film's end, your hairs will be standing up on end.

This is a memorable and very commendable piece of cinema.

4 out of 5

Little Fish
Australian release: Thursday the 8th of September, 2005
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill, Martin Henderson, Dustin Nguyen, Noni Hazelhurst, Joel Tobeck, Susie Porter, Lisa McCune, Daniella Farinacci.
Director: Rowan Woods.
Website: Click here.

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