Thomas Vinterberg's Submarino
It's everything one would expect of a Vinterberg film, when he's at hist best, at least if one have watched the likes of The Celebration, The Hunt and The Boy Who Walked Backwards -- It's a gritty social realistic depiction of ordinary people being people, usually those of the middle class less fortunate, living in the worst kind of circumstances; Here one need not worry about having to bite through several layers of symbolism to identify the plot's key points - "Submarino" wears all of the emotions on its clothes. A somewhat rushed beginning, hastily introduces us to two brothers, growing up with a lousy, violent and drunk mother, whereas it falls upon the brothers to be the adults to take care of their much younger new born sibling, whom they name Martin. It doesn't take long before a tragedy strikes, which toggles the heart strings a bit but that's all it does -- There's less a sense of weight to the tragedy, and drama, given how little time has passed for us to get to know these characters, which could be forgiven if the young actors had done a slightly more convincing job. Disregarding that, Submarino switches to cruise control at the highest caliber, when the reins are handed to Jakob Cedergren & Peter Plaugborg, playing the now adult sad, melancholic, brothers in their 30s. We sense that they rarely see each other, but a series of events forces them together again - could they perchance help each other out of the dark gutter, towards the light? Plaugborg is superb as the more subdued of the two brothers. He always lets us in on the immense love and the oppressive guilt that seethes and bubbles beneath his cool exterior. Cedergren is superb as always - his ability to convey an entire life story in the blink of an eye, one movement or even one word is quite incredible. one can even imagine -- Submarino is the triumphant rebound for Vinterberg's incredible talent as an auteur, it's auteur without really grasping at the heavy straws of the likes of Von Trier; It lingers on familiar themes like childhood injury, parents failure and abuse. Its glimses of the exposed underlying humour makes the miserable lives, with the viewer as its witness, feel slightly easier to bear in comparison to the works of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. It is harder and more brutal, but, behind its harsh facade, carried by sympathy for the characters, it is first and foremost created with a completely fearsome consistency of depth.
Vinterberg's ability to portray hope, blooming beneath permeated conditions, without one grain of sentimental hogwash is what makes "Submarino" able to hit me right in the heart. It's reccommended to anyone who can get access to it - subtitles will most likely be required.
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