Little Fish

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Little Fish

R

2005

1h 53m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

89%

Tomatometer

28 Reviews

57%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Four years clean, video store manager Tracy (Cate Blanchett) lives quietly, avoiding anything that might trigger a heroin relapse. Her ex-boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen) returns, claiming he is now a drug-free banker, and the two begin seeing each other again. Tracy looks after Lionel (Hugo Weaving), the man who introduced her to the drug. But, Lionel is thrown into a panic when his dealer, Brad (Sam Neill), suddenly retires. Lionel begs Tracy to help him score, testing her shaky sobriety.

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Critics Consensus

Fueled by powerful work from a strong cast led by Cate Blanchett, Little Fish is a hard-hitting story worth watching -- and a major step forward for director Rowan Woods.

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Philip French

Guardian

The actors give performances of intense naturalness.

Jul 22, 2006

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Patrick Peters

Empire Magazine

Strong performances and meticulous direction make this consistently disconcerting, but the subplot distracts from the moving human drama.

Rated: 3/5

Jul 22, 2006

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Geoff Andrew

Time Out

It's a sober, sensitive film ... about degrees of dependency, grief, guilt, recrimination and recuperation.

Jul 20, 2006

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Murtada Elfadl

Sundays with Cate

Cate Blanchett like you've never seen before, gritty and stripped down. Both in look and performance.

Rated: B+

May 1, 2020

Full Review

Keeva Stratton

Rescu (Australia)

It's an incredible performance [from Cate Blanchett].

Sep 15, 2017

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Urban Cinefile Critics

Urban Cinefile

A superb cast, mostly playing roles against type, make Little Fish a captivating and emotionally involving film, delivered with the flourish of a filmmaker who knows his craft and what to do with it to reach his audience.

Oct 18, 2008

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Ronald H

Unlikeable characters, poor exposition so we don't know what's going on half the time. Quite uninteresting, to the point where I turned it off.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

04/29/25

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kristopher h

Incredibly boring, hard to keep up with cause it’s so slow and poorly descriptive..

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

12/02/24

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Alain E

The best part of this movie is its visual appeal. Excellent cinematography almost expressionistic in character. Colors, angles, illumination make it a visual treat. The story itself plods along. If you expect resolution or a message, look elsewhere. In a way it is analogous to the book Junky of William Burroughs as drug use defines most of these characters. Cate Blanchett is superb, but the rest of the cast is also very good.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/17/24

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ANITA C

I was disappointed as. love Kate Blanchard. She doesn't disappoint in this movie but the Director/producer does. Terrible filming, angles and of course awful characters and the cussing is what you would expect but not good for Sunday watching. I really don't care about these people and that might be the director's intention, but there has to be a reason to continue watching. Perhaps if you are addicted you might want to see what this film has to offer. I think it's a downhill road. Very depressing and I'm sorry I purchased it.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

07/21/24

Full Review

Audience Member

One of my Favorite Cate performances- at least of of my favorite young cate performances. its so Raw and Wild. all of the actors in this movie made this seem almost like a documentary in ow the filming and storytelling went in this movie. The Dullness in what this movie seemed to started off on leads to a tantalizing story and the feeling that comes when Memories and Visions of what your possible future can have. Love this movie.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

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leonardo j

All the actors but Hugo Weaving act in an unnatural way. The movie is extremely slow and flat, without emotion. It's that kind of movie that you watch expecting all the time that something will happen to alter the lack of emotion in it. Boring! The Australian accent was hard to catch as well, at least to me.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Rowan Woods

Director

Cate Blanchett

Tracy Heart

Sam Neill

The Jockey

Hugo Weaving

Lionel Dawson

Martin Henderson

Ray Heart

Noni Hazlehurst

Janelle Heart

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Synopsis

Four years clean, video store manager Tracy (Cate Blanchett) lives quietly, avoiding anything that might trigger a heroin relapse. Her ex-boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen) returns, claiming he is now a drug-free banker, and the two begin seeing each other again. Tracy looks after Lionel (Hugo Weaving), the man who introduced her to the drug. But, Lionel is thrown into a panic when his dealer, Brad (Sam Neill), suddenly retires. Lionel begs Tracy to help him score, testing her shaky sobriety.

Director: Rowan Woods
Producer: Vincent Sheehan, Liz Watts, Richard Keddie
Screenwriter: Jacqueline Perske
Production Co: Myriad Pictures, New South Wales Film & Television Office
Rating: R (Drug Content|Brief Sexuality|Language)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Feb 24, 2006
Release Date (Streaming): May 22, 2017
Runtime: 1h 53m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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