As gorgeously photographed as SUBMERGENCE – the new romantic thriller from Wim Wenders – is, the frequent references to suffocation and drowning don’t do it any favours. Insufferable dialogue, a romance based mainly around philosophising in front of fireplaces and the latest incarnation of Film Scientists™® all render it suffocating without the need for any water.
James McAvoy and Alicia Vikander lead as star-crossed lovers who meet at a luxuriously appointed French hotel. James (McAvoy) is a spy on his way towards a mission in Somalia. Vikander plays the role of Danny: a scientist investigating life on the ocean floor. The plot mainly revolves around the differing isolation of the two. McAvoy in his soul-crushing regime of being beaten and looking to escape after being kidnapped. Vikander in her remote, boat-confined existence conducting scientific research whilst waiting for contact from James, that for obvious reasons never comes.
On a visual level, the film has considerable flair depicting the pair’s curious connection-through-separation dynamic. This theme has been seen before with Wenders, most notably in his best known work PARIS, TEXAS. However, the film is undone by two key elements. Firstly, the relentless grind of McAvoy’s imprisonment strand, until near the conclusion. Secondly, the infuriatingly poorly written ‘scientist’ Vikander is lumbered with by the script.
McAvoy’s confined, dark spaces offer much n the way of painting with slivers of light. Representing the only rays of hope James has at the time, they are undoubtedly beautiful. So are scenes shot within the hotel-cum-mansion, the cinematography of Benoît Debie is magnificent.
And yet.
The dialogue is out-loud-groan worthy. Full of the sort of over the top passionate declarations that require several drafts to be tolerable. When they succeed it can add import to the most improbable romance. Instead, here, we are left with absurd interactions (“Which ocean is your favourite?”) or the film script equivalent of The Killers or Oasis lyrics – something which sounds deeply profound but is very much not (“You don’t die when you fall in love”). Spouting pseudo-shite by fireplaces does not make for engaging viewing.
Vikander’s scientist is portrayed at the most shallow level. Her scenes are full of strange things that working professionals do not do, such as listening to (full length) academic papers being read out by a Siri-like tool. There is much made of the difficulty and import of her job, but little to actually present it in a credible way, especially when she abandons it to find phone signal and see if she is being ghosted. Instead, her profile is reduced to the shorthand of white lab coats, geeky glasses and a lot of shuffling of lab glassware. It is, of course, unreasonable to expect a full peer-reviewed and well-referenced depiction of academic science, but other films have succeeded where SUBMERGENCE has merely sketched in crayon.
Visually beautiful, but enormously tiresome and poorly written, SUBMERGENCE makes frequent references to the concept in its title. Letting something ‘wash over’ you or ‘envelope’ you can have pleasant connotations, or being buried can leave you feeling overcome. SUBMERGENCE, however, is much like the drowning James and Danny spend time talking about: suffocating, cold, and surrounded by wet fish.