Jumping between narrative and documentary films as of late, Wim Wenders’ latest finds him on the former side. The love story Submergence follows Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) as a bio-mathematician prepping for a dive into the bleakest depths of the Greenland Sea when she crosses paths with James More (James McAvoy), a spy about to be shipped off to Somalia on a reconnaissance mission. The combination of talent had us hopeful this could be a return to form for Wenders, but unfortunately, we weren’t big fans of it at TIFF.
Joseph Falcone said in his review, “More so unbearably simple than outright cliched, Erin Dignam’s script — an adaptation of J.M. Ledgard’s novel of the same name — tosses tidbits of exposition and halfhearted, intentional, yet ineffectively sullen discourse at the viewer without any real adhesive to combine the fragments. It is enough to put the story together yourself, if you can manage to fight off a wall of indifference, but really isn’t something worth assembling in the first place. Dead on arrival, there’s a surprising lack of chemistry between capable counterparts McAvoy and Vikander. Dignam’s atrocious screenplay and underdeveloped characters turn the film’s catalyst into a lovelorn molasses.”
Ahead of a release this spring, see the trailer and poster below.
Submergence opens on April 13.