Small fish in the whirlpool

Noemy 2022-02-22 08:02:50

Theme:
As a small fish in the water, it is often the most extravagant wish to march along the route you expect. It is always affected by the current caused by other fish swimming around;
some fish carefully avoid the surroundings The turbulent flow, but found that the trajectory of his past parade often became a new vortex, pulling the nearest self and other victims into the abyss;
the lucky ones who can avoid the first two are just when they are marching towards the destination with ambition , Is often shattered by a sudden ocean current;
small fish worship big fish, big fish envy whales, and in the endless ocean, whales are nothing but small fishes.

The first two are both "Little Fish" in my eyes. This is a movie that immerses me in the emotion and pain of the characters in the movie, and a movie that plunges me into long-term contemplation. This is definitely a good movie.
After watching the movie, I looked at the online reviews. I was amazed at a movie that was highly rated 86 on the famous Rotten Tomatoes website (for those picky critics, I think 86 is already a high score). The comments on domestic websites are actually very average. The few people who like it seem to just stay in the praise of Cate Blanchett's performance and appreciation of the film's soundtrack. I regret that a treasure was despised by boring audiences and missed by people who read the movie seriously, so I write something down and hope that those fans who can appreciate "Little Fish" will not pass by this fragrant bitterness of life.


About the content: the
content is mentioned a little bit, readers who are not comics please skip this paragraph. Tracy, a 32-year-old video rental store manager, is trying to apply for a loan to buy shares in the business she works for. But because of her bad record of credit card fraud, she was repeatedly rejected by the bank (Tracy was a drug addict in the past and used credit card fraud to buy drugs). In life, my mother’s ex-boyfriend Lionel, a former Australian football star addict, drug-trafficking brother Ray, and ex-boyfriend Johnny, who reappeared in his own life, seem to be in Drag Tracy, who hopes to regain her normal life, into the quagmire of past pain.


Analysis:
One of the most outstanding aspects of the film is the superb grasp of the contradictions in the drama. The whole film is full of sharp contradictions, but it is hidden. Even if Tracy is involved in the drug trade in the end, the director will deal with it extremely. It is natural and reasonable, without the processing traces of ordinary dramatic movies. It is more like a life documentary, making the audience believe that such a thing can happen in any unfortunate family. In this process, the painful and helpless Tracey played by Kate became more and more real, evoking the suffering caused by the people around them in their lives and the wrong choices they made in the past. I can't help but sigh deeply in my heart: life is so hard to control.

Another superb aspect of the film (and the novel) is that the film adopts a calm perspective that does not make value judgments to analyze Tracy's life and the characters around him. Is Tracy's experience worthy of sympathy? The film itself did not answer, but left it to the audience to think about. This kind of precious aloof attitude is difficult for many even excellent films and novels to achieve. Based on this alone, this is a literary work of high ideological value.
In addition, the film also paid attention to the main characters except Tracy, calmly showing their own distress and mutual fetters to the audience. The ex-boyfriend Leon of the mother who led Tracey into drugs astray Jenny’s last name is different.) She ruined her sports career because of drugs. In order to seek Jenny’s forgiveness, she tried to quit drugs, but she couldn’t help her addiction, so she begged Tracy to buy drugs for herself. Jenny, the mother who knew that Tracey was in a drug-traffic area, was heartbroken because she was worried about Tracey's re-use of drugs.
I personally think that the plot between Leon and Tracy best illustrates the theme: everyone lives in the pain caused by others, and each person is creating pain for himself and others. Everyone is a victim and at the same time a violent person. This is where the tragedy of social life lies. It can be regarded as a phenomenon that Sartre called "others are hell."

In addition, Tracey’s ex-boyfriend Johnny, a Vietnamese-Australian, had been involved in drug trafficking with Tracy’s brother Rui. Four years ago, he and Rui had a car accident (I don’t know if it is related to drug trafficking, because there is no Subtitles, I can’t guarantee that all the dialogue will not miss a word), Rui almost lost his life and lost a leg. Johnny therefore left Australia for four years. Johnny reappeared in Tracy's life four years later. Johnny left four years ago and caused great pain to Tracey. When he returned four years later, he still had love for Tracey, which made Tracey painful again. In order to win Tracy's favor, Johnny lied that he was helping his uncle in a big company. After the lie was exposed, Tracy was sad and angry. This is the tragedy of love: both of them are in love with each other, and even do bad things or lie about it, and in the end they hurt each other.
In the end, Johnny unintentionally drags Tracey into the quagmire of the drug trade, partly because he wants to help Tracey collect money that the bank refuses to borrow. (It can’t be said arbitrarily that Johnny was simply tricking Tracy into asking her for drug trafficking. Before countless stupid decisions in real life are made, there are often many reasons. Among them, there is no lack of justification. The parties themselves often I can’t tell which is the real decisive reason beforehand, and then I use it to defend myself afterwards. But those who use bystanders to refute me are not in a difficult position to make a decision. Of course they don’t. Will feel the anxiety and anxiety about gains and losses)

Another very valuable person is Steven (Steven), he is the local gangster Jockey's partner and thug. The boss Jockey found out that he was engaged in drug dealing with Rui privately, and finally killed Jockey. (In my opinion, Leon was not a homicide. It should have been caused by long-term drug use. He wrote a will in advance, which already hinted at his end.) It
is not his behavior, but his motives, that Steven shines. An important motivation for his smuggling of drugs is his family. The film did not waste any time to show his brutality or greed, but showed his family, a harmonious family. His wife advised him to draw a line with Jockey as soon as possible for the sake of his family. The film’s performance here clearly emphasizes it. Motivation. In the end, Rui and Tracey persuaded him not to shoot everyone. The reason was very simple and effective: "Are you married?"; "What about your life?" Steven stared at Tracey and the others in the car. After leaving, panting unburdened also answered this question.
Steven’s behavioral changes are an outstanding manifestation of the film’s excellent internal continuity. This has also created a typical bad person in life: a lost person who went astray for a legitimate reason, with a mentality that is difficult to look back, and walks deeper and deeper on the wrong road. Tracy's luck is that there is a lighthouse behind Steven-----home, which gives him a reason to look back. After all, Hannibal is still rare in real life.
Here is a digression. When Jockey went to Steven’s house, the camera swept across the photo on the wall of the living room and stopped on a photo. Steven in the photo was wearing a police uniform. In addition to perfecting his character image, the subtext To be frank, it seems that the Australian people sometimes don't trust comrades too much.

Finally, let’s talk about Tracey’s mother Jenny. It seems that Jenny is the most innocent victim in the movie. Her only fault was to let Leon walk into her family. The most vulnerable in the water is the female fish swimming with the small fish, because she exposed her soft belly to the small fish, the turbulence around the small fish (whether it was made by them or brought by others) Will harm the female fish itself. Jenny is a scarred female fish, her suffering comes from Tracy and Rui's misfortune.

So have the writers and directors who hold such a cold and detached attitude put forward their personal opinions and answers? I think it is. In the film, when Tracy found out that Johnny and Rui were trading in drugs again, she collapsed. She sat on the bed at night and wept. When her mother talked with her, there was a dialogue:
Tracy: I swim; I work ; I go home; I sleep.
Mother (Jenney): Tracy, it's your life. It's no one else's.
(If you don’t do any operation on the DVD menu interface for a period of time, the dialogue will be played repeatedly)
here. As the author/director speaks out his own point of view through the mouth of Jenny: when people are in the vortex created by others and themselves, they can only choose to fight, try not to be influenced by others, and then they can stay on the channel chosen by themselves. , Move forward gradually.
People must live for themselves first. This sentence seems selfish, but we can regard it as a call to the soul mainly on the spiritual level. The dilemma revealed by Little Fish leads to a more concrete voice: the human soul neither lives for others, nor does it merely redeem for its own past, but must live today and move toward the future one desires.

Performance:
Cate Blanchett who played Tracy in "Little Fish" was undoubtedly a success. The royal atmosphere of Kate who played Elizabeth and the queen of elves in the past was not brought into this movie at all, here. There was only one fragile and brave Tracy who was tortured. Without reservation, Cate Blanchett is the Daniel Lewis of female actors.
In addition, the performance of Hugo Weaving who plays Lionel is also amazing. He is completely unrecognized as Mr. Smith in "The Matrix" (he is also the actor of V in "V for Vendetta"; the Elf King in "Lord of the Rings"). He didn't have the opportunity to perform explosively in the movie, and even when he was addicted to drugs, he was not hysterically crazy. However, his awkward avoidance of old photos, the embarrassment of meeting Jenny, the painful cry of enduring drug addiction, all accurately show a drug addict's disgust and despair of his own life, and his wrong attitude towards the past. Remorse, the desire to return to a normal life and the weakness of the drug addict before the addiction, and the resulting despicability.

Lens:
By rotating the focal length in the film, the gradual change in depth of field (the same scene, from clear to blurred) and blurred music often makes the audience feel like underwater, which is very suitable for the uncontrollable feeling of life in the movie theme , Worthy of praise.

Music:
The soundtrack in the movie is very good. The most prominent is the mysterious and blurred electronic mixing at the beginning, which fits perfectly with the theme of the movie.
The second is "FLAME TREES" sung by children's voices. The song itself is very beautiful, and the pure boy voice always carries the color of memories in the eyes of adults. I guess this is the emotion that the filmmakers want to express.

All in all, for audiences who use movies as emotional fast food, Little Fish tastes too weak and lacks excitement; for those who like to savor movies carefully and chew their thoughts to inspire their own thinking. This is a treasure.

View more about Little Fish reviews

Extended Reading
  • Uriel 2022-02-22 08:02:50

    You can only watch the actors in this play. It doesn't matter if you go to the bathroom or anything. But a few clips are very good. Others...

  • Monique 2022-04-19 09:02:46

    Detoxification and self-salvation, Cate's performance is very good

Little Fish quotes

  • Janelle: She's doing great. She opening her own shop.

    Tracy Heart: Mum. I going into partnership with Min who I work for at the video shop. they're expanding into internet online gaming.

  • The Jockey: You're A Cunt Lionel... A JUNKIE Cunt