Film Review: Submission Observes Sex As A Response To Boredom
Synopsis: Ted Swenson (Stanley Tucci) is a once-acclaimed author who teaches writing at a small liberal arts college. Though his marriage to Sherrie (Kyra Sedgwick) is comfortable, he finds himself drowning in discontent—stuffy departmental dinners at which he drinks too much, smug colleagues whom he dislikes yet fears he resembles, and an endless stream of students who are as untalented as they are unteachable. But when a new pupil, Angela Argo (Addison Timlin), showspromise Ted focuses on nurturing her career, and she appears more than willing to devote the one-on-one time required. Basking in Angela’s youth, talent, and admiration, just as she benefits from Ted’s wisdom, experience, and professional connections, it’s only a matter of time before lines are crossed and it becomes unclear whether Ted is predator or prey and Angela is victim or victimizer.
I always said that men read actions, while women read intentions. We go for the under-currents of a space, its spiritual architecture, while men look at the walls and concrete. Whether this is natural is arguable, but, by now, such perspectives have been trained as natural; along with the idea that women please men without questioning whether men please women. In the time of #MeToo, Richard Levine’s Submission wants to analyze how gender has divided us from observing the spaces of pleasure from each other’s lens.
Submission displays the quiet desperations that move us into big actions. Stanley Tucci gives Ted Swenson a constant tiredness of being comfortable with his life, which is why he would rather disrupt it for a sense of “action” or “drama”. He believes the world, particularly the young, needs to be desensitized, but it is he who has grown numb. There is an arrogance to Ted, who believes because he is so intelligent, he is awakened, but it is immaturity that pushes him to ruin the good he has rather than elevate himself to appreciate it. Kyra Sedgwick as Sherrie, his wife, is gentile and in love with her husband. She truly bears his bitterness, and, in the few scenes they share, Sedgwick shows she is a calming force to his slight over-thinking.
Stanley Tucci’s Ted Swenson is a strange character. You do not pity him, but you do not bash him, as well. Now more than ever, in films, we are receiving characters we can neither embrace or push away as much as observe. You can see why Ted is excited by Angela; she is beautiful, smart, and in the beginning of her life when feels he is at a dead-end. The possibility to be apart of something that is starting invigorates him, but makes him forget she is not “something that is starting”: she is someone. He observes her fresh journey as a ride he would want to take because, again, he treats himself like he is over. Thus, his self-treatment, or lack of self-love and awareness, moves his, initially, blind exaltation of Angela.
Angela is not an innocent. Addison Timlin is magnetic as Angela, and gives the character internal waves of emotionality that become tsunamis, in certain scenes. Angela wants to be a premier writer, like Swenson, and Ted wants to return to his beginning, like Angela. Yet, she has a plan filled with intentions of using Ted to become a published writer. Her motivations are pretty obvious, along with the fact that they will fail because you do not ask someone who is struggling to help you through your struggle. When her ploy falls flat she turns to plotting revenge, and ousting their sexual encounter to the faculty’s attention.
I am sure the Submission will get a few eye-rolls from those who feel “another movie that promulgates men’s terror and weakness to women’s evil, overt seduction”, especially because there are so many cinematic tales about “the woman” who “ends” or “steals” a successful’s man career through mindless sex compared to vice versa. Yet, the “twist” in Francine Rose’s writing is that she has created a film where no one is a victim. Instead, what you have is a story of two people whom are bored with their lives, and fear that they are at their “best”, which is sad, because they certainly do not feel it. They use each other to reignite a hope and vision for their future they thought was “dead” or could never be. Although they are at different points in their lives and careers, spiritually, Angela and Ted are at the same stagnation; wondering if tomorrow will be as complacent as today or will bring forth a grander “adventure’ they assume they deserve. Submission comes out March 2.
