Submergence (4 Stars)

This is a very intense love story. It doesn't show that love conquers all. That's just kitsch. It shows that love can endure all adversities.

It all starts with a chance encounter between two people. James Moore (James McAvoy) and Professor Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) are both staying in a picturesque hotel in Normandy. James is a hydraulic engineer. He's a Scotsman who lives and works in Kenya. He's about to begin a job in Somalia to make plans for water purification, even though the British secret service has warned him that the job is too dangerous.

Danielle, who calls herself Danny, is a mathematics professor who is on an expedition which she thinks will discover information about the origin of life on Earth. She's planning to dive to the sea bed north of Greenland to take samples of the life forms that live without light. It's a long, slow expedition from France, around Ireland and Iceland, with many stops on the way, that will last almost a year.

After an intense romance that lasts only a few days they head off in opposite directions. James travels south, Danny travels north, but they promise to stay in touch and meet again as soon as they can. But Danny hears no more from James after he arrives in Somalia. Months go by, and he doesn't answer his phone. Is he dead? Has he forgotten her? She refuses to believe James doesn't love her, and she thinks about him even when she's on the sea bed in total darkness.

James is alive. He was captured by Jihadists immediately after his arrival who think he's a British spy. He was kept for months in a small unsanitary cell, before finally being released and treated as a friend, as long as he converts to Islam.

The film begins slowly with torturous explanations of the deep sea as Danny tries to explain her work to James. He sits there with a blank face, just as blank as the faces of the cinema audience, but it isn't completely irrelevant to the plot.

The two characters are different, almost opposites. James is outgoing, while Danny is quiet and reserved. After a long conversation in the hotel restaurant James tells Danny that he knows everything about her work, but he still knows nothing about her.

The film's images are overwhelming. The open sea and the landscape of the Faroe Islands are breathtaking. Even the Somalian scenery (which was actually filmed in Spain) is beautiful. The visual appeal of the film compensates for the slowness of the action.

One thing that confuses me about the film is the connection between James and the British secret service. At the beginning it's suggested that he might be a spy, but as the film continues we see that he really intends to give Somalia better drinking water. I suppose the two aren't necessarily a contradiction, but the line between his two activities is vague.

That's a secondary problem. First and foremost, this is a love story. Water connects the two lovers, and water divides them. When I walked out of the cinema this evening I felt stunned. "Submergence" is a film I shall think about for a long time.

Click here to see the trailer.