Little Fish, as you may determine from the credits list, is an actor’s project. That is, a small, independently financed Australian film boasting the sort of meaty roles actors will travel half way around the planet for. Two words. Addiction Drama. Thus, Cate Blanchett, Sam Neill and Hugo Weaving, all people who can work pretty much anywhere and any time they please, have returned to the continent that formed them to deliver Raw Emotional Performances.
Ms. Blanchett shines as Tracy, a former smack addict managing a video store in Cabramatta, the Sydney suburb nicknamed Little Saigon for its sizable Vietnamese population, and which doubles as the heroin capital of Australia. Mr. Weaving plays Lionel, a former football star attempting cold turkey for the umpteenth time after his supplier (Sam Neill) has cut him off. Many years previously, Lionel got Tracy hooked, but they remain close even in her sobriety. Just as you’re negotiating these miseries, Little Fish hits you with even more complications. Tracy wants to set up her own shop, but a poor credit rating stands in her way. Her Vietnamese ex-boyfriend shows up after four years. Her brother lost a leg in a car-crash. The entire cast get caught up in a drug lord’s squabble. And so on.
Director Rowan Woods (The Boys) paints these accumulating woes with an unflinching lack of sentiment, though frankly, I could have done without the indie standards (close up of bug, close up of filament in light bulb) and the endless repetition of the sink-or-swim metaphor. Over 114 minutes of screen time, Cate clocks up so many laps of the pool one fears a blood doping scandal in the offing.
The biggest problem, bizarrely however, arises from the casting. The principles – though impressive – are simply all too close in age to allow us to discern the nature of their relationships. In a film already leaning towards obliqueness, much of our viewing time is taken up with figuring out ‘Who’s this guy, again?’
Still, we’re not going to complain about having to use our brains while watching a movie, are we?