Submarine **

 

Passion is dead for his parents, but Oliver Tate sets his sights on Jordana Bevan. He schemes. He worries. He never gives up.

Set in a perpetually grey Wales, life is torment for confused 15-year-old Oliver (Craig Roberts). He concocts any drama he can to spice up his glum home situation and pointless school days. Imagination is his best friend, providing the only way to survive the unrelenting pessimism around him.

“In many ways I prefer my own company,” he narrates. “It gives me time to think.” His word of the day is “flagitious” which means “shamefully wicked.”

Oliver lurches forward on a frenzied quest to lose his virginity with droll, matter-of-fact Jordana (Yasmin Paige). He flees school bullies and endures social mishaps. Even when he entices Jordana to his house for a romantic dinner while his parents are out, quiet desolation persists.

Two actors to watch are Roberts (Jane Eyre) and Paige (I Could Never Be Your Woman). Surely they’ll enjoy better professional days ahead.

 

Submarine relives the worst of adolescent angst. First-time director Richard Ayoade (a comedian on the Britcom The IT Crowd) assembles interesting actors and directs them through a zombie-like trance for 97 long minutes. The result is cynical and pointless. Adapted from Joe Dunthrone’s novel of the same name, Submarine sinks in despair. Even its witty dialogue can’t lift the tedium.

Impassioned New Age life coach Graham Purvis (Paddy Considine) provides Submarine’s only bright spot. Graham, who’s just moved in next door, happens to be the former love interest of Oliver’s mom Jill (Sally Hawkins). He represents her road not taken and provides the film with a fleeting, higher vision.

Jill avidly hangs onto Graham’s every word at his seminars. Even the spiritually inclined will wince at his light show mumbo jumbo (“I am a prism. . . . I am exciting and delicious.”) Graham does provide a vital glimmer of hope to his motley audiences as he sells his books and tapes.

Poor old Lloyd Tate (Australian actor Noah Taylor) is a depressed marine biologist who calmly observes Jill’s flirtation with the colorful huckster. He knows she’ll return to him. When he spies Graham having midnight bumper sex with a follower, he sees right through him.    

Graham threatens Oliver’s sad, safe world.  Alarmed, he sneaks into the guru’s seminar room to steal a videotape. Later, Jill and Lloyd watch Graham on the telly. “He’s really working that third eye, isn’t he?” Lloyd quips. An odd lack of feeling weighs down the scene.

The Tates care. They guide Oliver even as he calls them out on their own rote marriage. Jill utters calm words. “Passion rarely lasts,” his father advises. Survive, don’t thrive, they seem to say.

A recent American film about teen angst, The Art of Getting By, seems like a laugh fest compared to Submarine. Dry and one note, this movie never comes to life. Oliver and Jordana might as well walk into an ocean of grief.

If you like Submarine, you might enjoy:  The Art of Getting By; Super 8.

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Submarine     2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 37 min

Cast Overview:  Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine, Noah Taylor

Director:  Richard Ayoade

Genre:  Indie Dramedy, Movie Based on the Book