Submarine – 2010 | 97 mins | Drama, Comedy | Colour

Plot Synopsis

Richard Ayoade’s debut feature film, Submarine, was adapted from Joe Dunthorne’s 2008 novel. The witty coming-of-age story is narrated by the pompous adolescent central character Oliver Tate in a style similar to teenage diarist Adrian Mole. The 15-year-old Welsh schoolboy must contend with the teenage angst of saving his parents’ shaky marriage by discouraging his mother from succumbing to the advances of a neighbourhood mystic and simultaneously luring his eczema-strafed girlfriend Jordana Bevan to the bedroom. Submarine is a little clichéd but a wry and uncharacteristic take on British social realism. The unintentionally cruel and social inept Oliver is superbly portrayed by Roberts and there are good performances from Sally Hawkins as his skittish mother and Paddy Considine’s scene-stealing mystic.

Oliver Tate (Noah Roberts) is a 15 year-old self-absorbed loner living in bleak 80s Swansea. He is in love with a feisty but frank Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige) who he believes would improve his ‘street cred’, and goes as far as bullying an overweight classmate to impress her. One day she invites him to meet after school, instructing him to bring a Polaroid camera and a diary. She takes pictures of them kissing, but it turns out to be a plan to make her ex-boyfriend jealous. The plan backfires, the two are publicly bullied, and Oliver is beaten up for refusing to call Jordana a massive slut. Walking home after their ordeal, she takes his hand and they kiss, and Oliver quickly establishes Jordana is his girlfriend.

At home, Oliver becomes concerned his parent’s marriage is falling apart and that his staid marine biologist dad (Noah Taylor) is depressed. Worse yet, new age guru Graham (Paddy Considine), an ex-boyfriend of his ditzy mother’s (Sally Hawkins), has moved in next door, and his seductive and flirtatious character is rousing Oliver’s suspicions. Meanwhile Oliver’s relationship with Jordana is growing, and after a fortnight he plans for the two to make love at his home. Oliver’s relationship with Jordana begins to crumble when he learns that her mother has developed a potentially fatal brain tumour, the socially-inept teen decides to cut off contact with Jordana because he thinks her ordeal will make her ‘gooey in the middle’. Meanwhile, suspecting his mother and Graham are having an affair, he breaks into Graham’s house, gets drunk, and commits minor acts of vandalism. Later, Jordana’s mother recovers from illness and she dumps him in favour of a new boyfriend due to his failure to support her.