Submerged is part about incessant screaming by the stereotypical rich kids and part obscure noir narrative. It's ambitiously fueled by back and forth timelines as well as a shot in the dark for thriller genre, all of which are below standard. The lack of focus, inconsistent acting and bad characterization make it a very suffocating experience to endure.
Story opens up pretty interestingly with a reinforced car slowly drowning. It would've been better to stick with this core plot, instead it tries to be pretentiously clever with all sort of gangster subplots and highly unmemorable party junkie characters. The main lead has a couple of good scenes, although he still makes awkward expressions here and there. The rest of cast is even more imbalanced and as the pace shifts too many times, the plot ends up muddled and cumbersome.
Acting is poor all around, mostly because the script only consists of expected blaming and yelling. Not that the characters have any shred of spark in the first place, these people are like 90210 rejects with brasher attitude. To make matter worst, one third of the movie is dedicated to build these personalities without any effective result. Never mind likable, audience probably wouldn't recognize them mid-way through the movie and wouldn't care less about their situation.
Granted, it has some success with the thriller aspect of being confined in small space, albeit briefly. Then it falls like a rock in river with shady crime drama. There's a good ten minutes of standoff with people showing up literally behind each other while pointing gun. As if the random materialization isn't bad enough, the characters even engage in melee showdown while the camera insanely spins around them while they are making stupid faces.
Submerged has one decent idea, which it intentionally ruins with so many awful presentation fiasco. This is an allegory of strapping a cinder-block to oneself and jumping off the bridge.
Story opens up pretty interestingly with a reinforced car slowly drowning. It would've been better to stick with this core plot, instead it tries to be pretentiously clever with all sort of gangster subplots and highly unmemorable party junkie characters. The main lead has a couple of good scenes, although he still makes awkward expressions here and there. The rest of cast is even more imbalanced and as the pace shifts too many times, the plot ends up muddled and cumbersome.
Acting is poor all around, mostly because the script only consists of expected blaming and yelling. Not that the characters have any shred of spark in the first place, these people are like 90210 rejects with brasher attitude. To make matter worst, one third of the movie is dedicated to build these personalities without any effective result. Never mind likable, audience probably wouldn't recognize them mid-way through the movie and wouldn't care less about their situation.
Granted, it has some success with the thriller aspect of being confined in small space, albeit briefly. Then it falls like a rock in river with shady crime drama. There's a good ten minutes of standoff with people showing up literally behind each other while pointing gun. As if the random materialization isn't bad enough, the characters even engage in melee showdown while the camera insanely spins around them while they are making stupid faces.
Submerged has one decent idea, which it intentionally ruins with so many awful presentation fiasco. This is an allegory of strapping a cinder-block to oneself and jumping off the bridge.