Twenty-year-old actor Craig Roberts takes the lead as Oliver, an imaginative adolescent with adolescent concerns: mortality, peer acceptance and girls. Oliver daydreams the movie of his life and then outlines meticulous plans to make those fantasies come true. Dream #1 is Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige from"The Sarah Jane Adventures"), a cute gal who likes the occasional mayhem. Oliver will resort to a little bullying to prove to his mettle and win her heart. Despite a strong desire to be different Oliver is influenced by his surroundings. He has attempted many affectations to change other people's perceptions but most of his efforts have been cribbed from old movies and American soap operas. He stares at the sea like a Romantic Age poet because he saw a film that asserted this is what great thinkers do. Still, no big answers seem to come back from the emptiness.
Oliver's young life is complicated by a growing distance between his parents. Sally Hawkins plays the mother, Noah Taylor plays the father. She once wanted to be an actress, but now works in government administration; he is a marine biologist whose suffers from chronic depression. He describes the mood as being akin to submersion and that is where the movie gets its title.
"Submarine" was adapted from Joe Dunthorne's novel by and is the directorial debut of Richard Ayoade who is better known as an actor, particularly his role as Moss on the British sitcom "The IT Crowd." The aforementioned "Harold and Maude" and the works of Wes Anderson (especially "Rushmore" and "The Life Aquatic") can be seen as influences on the film. The dead pan dialogue, off kilter characters, formalistic framing and quirky voiceover place the film squarely in the minute genre of darkly comedic coming-of-age tales starring morbid teen boys who attempt to act above their age. It doesn't reach the heights of those earlier efforts but it is the first attempt from a talented new director.
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| Director Richard Ayoade on location |
