Submergence

Trust me, the question in my title is leading somewhere with regard to this movie. And I'll reward you with my favorite art joke at the end of this review. But for now just indulge me. Have you visited an art gallery, or would you like to if you had the chance? All the NOs may leave the building (no hard feelings, I'm just trying to save you 112 mins of your time). All the YESs and MAYBEs and I GUESS IF I REALLY NEEDED TO USE THE BATHROOMs, please read on.

"Submergence" is a powerful film which, much like a painting, defies any attempt to sum it up in 500 words or less. Even the genre that it's listed under, "drama, romance, thriller", is as misleading as calling "2001: A Space Odyssey" a scifi flick. The story follows 2 people on 2 opposite sides of the world, each coming to grips with their own likely death, their own duty to a cause that no one cares about, and the thing that binds this whole story together: their love for each other. Thus "Submergence" is the ultimate long-distance-relationship, but with a clever existential spin: neither one knows if the other is alive, or even if the other person is still in love with them.

That's all that needs to be said about the plot because the plot is secondary to the real power of this film. I don't need to tell you about the guns, grenades, suicide bombers, sinking submarines, psycho soldiers, or James McAvoy's cute pet centipede. All that stuff is just dressing atop the great lines and magnificent imagery. If you watch this flick, I highly recommend turning the subtitles on so you don't miss any of the wonderful dialogue and poetic thoughts that are peppered throughout.

Back to the art gallery, as promised. It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that director Wim Wenders considers himself an artist/photographer foremost, while to him being a filmmaker is almost secondary. It's evident in all of his films that he's telling us stories through visual composition rather than action. If you're new to Wim Wenders, this is a pretty good place to start because "Submergence" is very poetic and challenging, but it's not so abstract that it might lose you (such as his earlier masterpieces from the 1980s "Paris, Texas" and "Wings of Desire"). Wim Wenders is really like a classic painter who happens to have the technology to make films. So with that in mind, I think if you're ready for an "art gallery" experience, then this flick is for you.

Oh right. I promised you an art joke. Ok, here goes. A woman and her dumb boyfriend from (insert name of place you want to ridicule here) go to an art gallery. The dumb boyfriend looks at a painting and says "that looks like something the cat threw up." Woman says: "That's a Monet." Dumb boyfriend moves to the next wall and says "that looks like some chick stuck her face in a blender." Woman says: "That's a Picasso." Dumb boyfriend moves to the next wall and says "that looks like a monkey picking his nose." Woman says: "That's a mirror."

Seriously, this movie ended without any destination being reached. It set it up quite well, but there was no point, no conclusion, no deep reveal, no destination traveled to, I really enjoyed the scenery and some of the dialog, it was like a class on marine biology, and some average concepts on life, but then it just left it there, nothing...... Bit of a waste of the journey if you either don't have anything to say or you don't know how to convey it.

In spite of its very low 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I watched it because of the lead cast, namely James McAvoy and Alicia Vikander. It's indeed not a great movie, but I didn't feel it deserved such animosity. It's just a plain, "meh", movie. A man and a woman meet during holidays in some sort of vacation village at the French Atlantic coast. He's an agent from the MI6 and she's a oceanographer (he presents himself under the cover of another job). They each take a few days off before an important mission; for him to go obtain intelligence about an IS leader in Africa and her to dive in a deep-sea submarine to find about life at the bottom of the ocean. They fall in love and promise that they'll see each other again. As she engages into the sea, he is taken prisoner, and somehow... (insert some sort of mystical, spiritual stuff). Well, the movie doesn't quite deliver on the spiritual part; the two story-lines just have really nothing in common.

I didn't really mind this lack of overall consistency. There is the first part which is the long, full-fledged love arc in the vacation village. There are some cheesy dialogues and mood music that are reminiscent of weekdays afternoon TV movies but the important cast and the thematic around their characters' jobs (MI6 agent an oceanographer) gave me enough goodwill to care and find some sort of chemistry in their relationship. The second part alternates between him being a prisoner of IS and her going to her day-to-day oceanographic research (before the final dive). Again, it's quite superficial and nothing really stands out, but it's followable. There are nice shots of the sea and of the submarine.

On the technical side the sound mixing was bad and it was hard to understand the dialogues over the background sounds. Some of the framing was awkward, again evocative of TV movies. I watched it without minding, and went on with my life. I've seen way worse and endured way more boredom in films that are considered way better.

James More (James McAvoy) is a secret agent who goes on a mission to Somalia in order to stop terrorist action but becomes hostage of al-Qaeda instead.

Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) is a bio-mathematician who must carry out an equally dangerous task by diving in the utmost depths of the ocean to collect samples that could lead to groundbreaking discoveries regarding life.

Long flashbacks show how they met each other just before they embarked on their separate journeys and got involved in a romance that is over before it begins, as it turns into a long distance relationship, where the two partners have no way of reaching out to each other. The memory of their time together makes the feeling of isolation they experience during the hard times they are facing even stronger.

The most engaging part of the movie is undoubtedly the flashbacks. Two charismatic leads that form a real bond, not necessarily because of their chemistry, but mostly because they have the chance to express their philosophies by talking about some big social issues (such as the environment, terrorism, or what is the role of the individual against those problems) or personal matters (such as the meaning of life and the fear of death). The gorgeous scenery is a nice touch as well.

On the other hand, both the terrorist and the underwater storyline leave a lot to be desired. There's not much going on in either of them, James is dragged around to various places and almost gets killed each time, while Danielle waits for his call and wonders if he left her.

I went into this movie with high hopes. There aren't enough romantic dramas out there and I loved that it was described as a "haunting love story." Well... it was more like a disappointing love story to me. Without giving away any spoilers, the format of this movie intercuts between the past romance and the current separation of the two main characters portrayed by James McAvoy and Alicia Vikander. While I like both of these actors individually, I didn't really feel the chemistry between them. That said, I was still interested in their separate storylines (he is taken prisoner by jihadists and she is doing deep water sea exploration). But... after all that waiting, I didn't think the ending was very well done.