I have been waiting too long for the film of my life. My name is Oliver Tate. This film will capture my particular idiosyncrasies, for example, the way I seduce my classmate Jordana Bevan using only my mind. Also, since my parents’ marriage is being threatened by a man who runs courses on Mental and Physical Wellbeing, the film will probably feature some elaborate set-pieces of me taking him down. There will be helicopter shots. There will be slow-mo, but also transcendent moments, like when I cure my father’s depression. Knowing me as I do, I will be surprised if this film runs to less than three hours. Note to the press: appropriate adjectives to describe this film include “breath-taking” and “irresistible” as well the phrase: “a monumental achievement”.
Following 15 year old serial diarist and famous-philosopher-in-waiting Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) as he traverses the scary landscape of friendship, first love and paranoia over the state of his parents’ marriage, Richard Ayoade’s Submarine is a perfect mix of comedy and coming-of-age drama.
Oliver has a cold and practical approach to life, choosing a girlfriend based not on love or lustful feelings, but solely on her attainability. He is the kind of lad who thinks that typing up a leaflet explaining how to break the ‘victim cycle’ will help a girl he has bullied. He thinks that causing the death of a pet will prepare someone for the loss of a parent. He makes regular checks of his own parents’ bedroom for signs of sexual activity, as he doesn’t want to be the product of a broken home.
Oliver has an almost scientific outlook on life, but at the same time carries an underlying romantic nature. Not romantic in the ‘hearts and flowers’ sense, hell no. No, Oliver’s sense of the romantic is seeing himself as an enigmatic teenage hero, and dreaming of his death causing an outpouring of national grief.
All in all, he is a bit of weird, quite deluded mess of a teenager. Which makes for a fantastic character. Submarine sees him undergoing an emotional awakening of sorts. Measurements and plans being replaced with feelings and real life.
Sweet and touching, with the right balance of humour, Submarine benefits no end from what can only be described as top class casting. Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor both give great understated performances as Oliver’s parents, Yasmin Paige pulls a strange brew of mischievous allure as Oliver’s object of desire Jordana, while Paddy Considine seems to have a ball as new-age mystic and potential wife-stealer Graham T. Purvis. Between Lloyd Tate’s awkward Open University programming and the ridiculous mumbo-jumbo spouted by Purvis, the humour present in some of the characters is still making me laugh.
Craig Roberts performance as Oliver makes him possibly the character I’ve warmed to most in any film I’ve seen so far this year. His facial expressions alone make for pure comedy gold, and the delivery of his internal monologue adds so much to the whole film. The Oliver Tate of Joe Dunthorne’s novel inhabits a very interior world, reflecting and musing on everything he encounters. Richard Ayoade’s translation of this element works to great effect.
Add in some gorgeous locations, great cinematography with nice use of colour, and you have a rather brilliant feature film debut. Oliver doesn’t get the slow-motion and helicopter shots he maybe wished for, but he gets something far more beautiful.
Go see Submarine on release – it’ll charm you to hell!
