Director Wim Wenders gave the world the glorious profound-yet-whimsical Wings of Desire, and for that I will always revere him. However, his latest film, Submergence, a love story meets political thriller, is ambitious and, while engaging with lofty themes, doesn’t achieve anywhere near the same kind of brilliance. Submergence is a romantic thriller based on the novel Submergence by J.M. Ledgard, from a screenplay by Erin Dignam (The Last Face).
The love affair is between a bio-mathematician (one who calculates the ages of things marine), Danny (the ever-watchable Alicia Vikander), and a British undercover agent posing as a water engineer, James (the ever-watchable James McAvoy). When they meet by chance at a picturesque hotel in Normandy, each is about to undertake a mission – her to the depths of the ocean in a submersible, exploring the origin of life on earth, he to a long-term sting operation unearthing suicide bomber cells run by Islamic State terrorists in Somalia.
Their separation is upon them before they’ve barely had a chance to recognise each other as The One. Danny doesn’t know that James is flying into a dangerous situation. When things go wrong for James and Danny doesn’t hear from him, she becomes insecure and starts to doubt the strength of his feelings for her. He keeps thoughts of her close to sustain him during what becomes a terrifying and unpredictable ordeal. They are both in danger; Danny from the reach of scientific exporation dependent on technology and he from Islamic State.
Both leads are attractive, and the chemistry’s there, for sure, but their connection with each other has a cerebral kind of vibe to it. Partly because much of their falling for each other’s body, soul and intellect happens in mumbly, barely audible, sometimes opaque dialogue. When they’re parted, we’re not especially moved (or at least I wasn’t).
Themes of isolation and of being out of one’s depth, of science versus belief, are played out literally and metaphorically. Submergence wants to draw us to profound depths in consideration of the origins of life, of our relationship with the planet, of explorations geo-political, physical, intellectual, emotional, anthropological and spiritual. All the big questions. The weight of this ambition, though, makes for a self-conscious and burdened film where the tense political thriller/action/love story plotlines seem at odds with the concerns of the story – who we are, on the planet, right now – often filmed with a slow-moving, poetic, emotionally loaded moodiness. As often, when film tries to recreate the tone of literature, the emotional tenor doesn’t sit easily.
Submergence takes a relativist position towards militant fundamentalism, considering the Somali jihadis as driven by purity of belief, rather than by power or rank misogyny. Misalignment, ambivalence and awkwardness, for me, are encapsulated in the character of Dr Shadid (Alexander Siddig), a gentle character himself, apparently able to condone the brutality of the jihadists with a philosophical and intellectual stance. The scene where he’s watching live, via an x-ray camera link, a woman’s skull being shattered as she’s stoned to death, is most disturbing. He receives a long reproachful look from James before rushing off to save the life of a boy (presumably the woman’s child) who was shot while trying to intervene. Don’t judge, the film’s saying, look, now we have an episode of humanity on the part of a jihadi after all the horror. Well, sod that.
The second two thirds of Submergence are gripping: you’re there with the characters, tense, almost unable to breathe for fear of them. Yet overall, you’re simply submerged. You’re meant to come away with a deepened understanding and appreciation of ‘everything’, but I came away feeling flat and wrung out.
3 stars: ★★★
Submergence
Director: Win Wenders
USA/France/Spain, 2015
Backlot Films
Running time: 1h 52min
Rated: M
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