Thomas Vinterberg/ Denmark/Sweden/ 2010/ 110 min/ N/C 18+
Ever since Danish director Thomas Vinterberg came to international attention with 1998’s remarkable Festen – the first ever official Dogma 95 film and shot in an energetic and gritty fashion according to the edicts of the “Vow of Chastity” – he has yet to fully emerge from Festen’s shadow (just try naming any of his subsequent films). While Submarino is a good solid effort, it’s difficult to ascertain whether or not it will be the film that does the honours and gets Vinterberg back into the global spotlight.
We follow Nick (Jakob Cedergren) and his younger brother as they attempt to make the best of their difficult lives following the cruel hand they were dealt as children. With an absent father and a loveless, chronically alcoholic mother, the two brothers do what they can to look after each other but their already difficult family life is marked by an unfortunate, traumatic tragedy. As we follow their adult lives, marred with drug use, alcoholism, violence and stints in prison, it becomes clear that they have never fully come to terms with their dysfunctional past and have more than their fair share of unresolved emotional issues.
Surprisingly for a film with such bleak subject matter shot with a gloomy, desaturated social realist visual style, Submarino is frequently (but darkly) hilarious, with an notably optimistic outlook. The nastiness of the unfolding events are held in check by a well-crafted script and sympathetic performances which keep things interesting and watchable. This isn’t exactly a feelgood movie, but it’s nice to see dodgy, disreputable people depicted as credible human beings rather than irredeemable scum. Ultimately the film’s message seems to be that life would be more bearable if people talked to each other more, which is hard to argue with.