Review of Submergence

"Submergence" is a new German/American/French/Spanish movie that premiered about a year ago already at several film festivals. The star is perhaps the director here as we have multiple Oscar nominee Wim Wenders in charge, but like wih some other of his recent non-documentary films, the reception was pretty lukewarm gently speaking. Anyway, it runs for slightly under 2 hours and stars Oscar winner Alicia Vikander next to James McAvoy with both of them being lead, but maybe the latter a bit more if we take a closer look at the screen time I guess. It is the story of a couple falling in love with each other, but their professions have them seperate for a while, even if plans to see each other again are very present. It's not a split-up, but just everybody doing their thing for a little while. In terms of the woman that means that she goes deep down to the sea to pursue her career as a scientist under really dangerous circumstances in areas that may have never see humans before. And in terms of the male protagonist, he has an important task to fulfill deep down at enemy lines in Africa where he ends up being taken hostage by some truly dangerous Islamic terrorists. A great deal of the movie is all about who will live and who will die and it is a question mark that is above everything really, not just for McAvoy's character, but for Vikander's as well when we remember her story early on about how in case of technical failure she is lost down there dying from lack of oxygene with nobody able to help her. Okay well, the reference that there simply is no second submarine like this to save her in such a scenario is a bit pseudo dramatoc perhaps. But still, it was an interesting idea that stayed in my mind throughout the entire film. And for her male counterpart: Well there is really constant danger that threatens his life and even at the very end it is not clear if he is gonna live or die. But I quite liked the moment we hear him scream in the water and when we see her at the exact same being so quiet, so silent inside the submarine looking outside the window and witnessing all the miracles deep down there around her. The scene with the two together are frequent early on, but then it really felt to me like two movie about ttwo characters in one. The connection with these scenes between the two again as well as the two making brief romantic references about each other feel a bit for the sake of it, so in terms of this being a romantic movie or a film that focuses on a love story too I think they could have done better. I have not read the book, so I cannot say if the problem is there already or in the screenplay (by the way Wenders is not the writer this time). The two actors did a pretty good job I guess and the film's flaws have nothing to do with their performances. I was lucky enough to watch this film here in Berlin at the Kino International with Wenders present and it was so nice to see him in person and talk a bit about the production after the credits rolled in. You learn a lot of interesting stuff from premieres like these, a lot more than the fact that it was from Wenders' perhaps most prolific year and that production took no less than 4 years. Also nice to see people like Koch and Schlöndorff in the audience for once. Anyway, back to the movie. With Wenders in charge, of course, there are always many beautiful shots and moments here and this film is obviously no exception. So if the story does not catch and keep your attention (like it seems the case with many critics), then maybe the visual side can and I am not just talking about the gorgeous Alicia Vikander here. I think McAvoy isn't too shabby either. But yeah, I preferred this movie for sure over Wenders' recent Pope Francis documentary and seems I am clearly in the minority with this perception. So "Submergence" gets a thumbs-up from me, even if the plots on environment and romance are not too convincing, the terrorism story line was a bit better. Go see this film. Recommended.