Films about relationships are a natural fit for first time filmmakers. Australian writer/director Sophie O’Connor‘s first film, Submerge, focuses on the various relationships college student Jordan (Lily Hall) tries to balance while training to become a world-class swimmer. Jordan seems to be the typical college student, sleeping late and ignoring her overbearing mother’s phone calls. But Jordan and her roommate Lucas (Kevin Dee) are in the middle of exploring their sexuality — Jordan is a lesbian and Lucas is bisexual — when they cross paths with their history professor Cameron (Andrew Curry) and his younger girlfriend Angie (Christina Hallett), who is also Jordan’s tutor. Angie’s relationship with Cameron has been going on for some time, but the younger Angie has wandering eye and finds herself attracted to Jordan. For Jordan, trying to maintain her athletic regime, academic work, and, most problematic of all, her love life, causes all three to simultaneously unravel and, in many ways, entangle. Soon she is having a sex-and-drug fueled breakdown and is quickly heading to her self destruction.
Submerge has a lot to say about parental pressure, and it’s obvious that that the pressure issues Jordan faces stems from her mother’s strict demands. Yet in their only exchange in the movie, her much more understanding father points out that he can tell that she no longer loves swimming as much as “the little girl who wouldn’t get out of the pool” and would understand if she wanted to quit. He’s obviously the far more reasonable parent, but someone as wound up as Jordan can’t simply shut off the pressure. It’s one of the few reasonable “exits” Jordan can take, but Jordan is committed to the unreasonable.
I’m hesitant to call Submerge a fresh take on the plot of over-pressured teenagers simply because of the sexuality, but that is the only way that this movie is different thematically from others like it. As a result, it didn’t have much of an impact on me as I watched it because I always felt like I knew where the narrative was going. It fits comfortably in the teenage drama vein of ABC Family primetime shows with obviously racier content. That’s not my taste in film, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t think it was a solid first effort. In particular, the best part of the film is Lily Hall, who is reminiscent visually and in poise of Hilary Swank. She’s adept at demonstrating the range of emotion that the role requires. She makes Jordan’s pain and anguish very visible and real, even if her descent is the opposite of subtle.
The movie’s conclusion is open-ended, but not in the best sense of the term. Too many of Jordan’s plot threads are left unresolved, leaving the ending ultimately unsatisfying. Instead of being cleverly open-ended, it just seems like O’Connor and co-writer Kat Holmes didn’t know what kind of ending they wanted to give Jordan. In her next film, I hope to see O’Connor is focus on a narrative that will make her work stand out rather than be part of a well-tread genre.
As a final note, the version of Submerge I screened was labeled a “Rough Cut,” and I still think the film could use another thorough edit. In particular, there are too many extended musical interludes (I counted at least five) that cause the movie to drag. I think trimming or excising some of these would make the film more enjoyable.
RATING: A fairly pedestrian teenage melodrama that has some interesting moments but doesn’t offer anything new (4.5/10).
Submerge will screen on Friday, March 1 at 6:00 PM at Loews Village VII (66 3rd Avenue, New York, NY) in competition for the First Time Fest 2013.
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