"Sad Submarine", thanks to Thomas Winterberg, brings the two broken lives of a pair of brothers slowly with the strongest Nordic atmosphere.
The brothers (the eldest named Nick, the second unnamed) had pretty bad childhoods, with a poor, abusive, and alcoholic mother. Their only fun is taking care of their new baby brother. The film starts with the purest and warmest clip. The brothers get into the white bed and tease their little brother. The sun shines in and covers them through the sheets. They giggled and were full of joy.
They named the little brother, changed his diaper, and made formula for him. They also teased their mother who urinated in the kitchen after drinking too much. Nick, who was slapped by his mother, lit a cigarette in the dark. The lighter flickered on and off, with light, but it seemed to be about to go out.
The cold and gloomy northern Europe has been drifting with fine snow. The adult Nick put his hands in the jacket pockets, and the sky is gloomy but the gloomy face of Nick. He hurried down the street, every day the same, predictably repeated, lifeless, like his whole being.
He was imprisoned and released again. His girlfriend was with someone else, only his girlfriend's mentally handicapped brother and the female neighbor and sex friend who lived next door were by his side.
He lives alone, is irritable, taciturn, keeps exercising, drinks alcohol, and falls asleep after drinking.
If you ask Nick himself is he alone? Perhaps he would answer that he had not thought about the word loneliness a long time ago, because he had long since stopped thinking about anything, he was alive and only alive.
Sometimes Nick thinks about calling his brother whom he hasn't seen in a long time, broadcasts a number he knows by heart, and hangs up when he connects. What to say? Remember when they didn't treat their sick little brother in time because they were drunk? Lamenting that the once-fantasy threesome of brothers finally came to nothing? The past is too sad for Nick to face.
Smashed the phone, Nick's fist was full of blood and his ex-girlfriend's name was tattooed on that hand. He doesn't care he just vents. He later beats up the gym punk with this wounded fist, trying to save himself by living a life that borders on masochism.
The structure of the two-line narrative carries on the life of the second child and the son Martin at the same time. The death of his wife left the second child alone to take care of Martin, and the second child did his best to warm Martin. Happiness seems to be within reach but out of reach. Because he is an addict.
In order to make money, he took the risk of selling drugs on the street, but delayed picking up Martin from the kindergarten. He stole Martin's favorite Zorro toy from the store, and when he made money, he took Martin to the store to buy a lot of food, but the first thing he did when he got home was to go to the bathroom to solve his grinding drug addiction. He fell asleep and woke up a long time later. Martin fell asleep on the floor alone, next to the uneaten dry bread. He wanted to protect Martin and stay by Martin's side all the time, but he couldn't.
The goodbye kisses on the school bus, every time it was like the last, Martin was so good, his diet made him look weak. Martin never asks why his dad never picks him up on time, why he spends so much time in the bathroom not cooking for him. Some things may be understood when he thinks back when he grows up, but he certainly won't hate his father. As long as he is with his father, he is very happy. Martin is really distressing.
The few happy moments that the father and son only have made people can't bear to watch, because you understand that it will not be eternal, and the happiness at this moment can only set off the sadness of the ending. The strong father-son relationship is covered by sadness. That kind of heartache, people who don't see it won't understand.
Nick is like a repressed beast, he seeks to vent every moment, but even if life is painful, he is still his leader. In contrast, life has long been like an ant for the second child, and it can wither in an instant. He is unable to break free from the control of drugs, and he is like a lamb to be slaughtered quietly waiting for the fate of the executioner.
The story comes to a juncture at their mother's funeral. Nick looked at Martin, and for the first time there was light in his eyes. He gave up the inheritance and left it all to his brother. He said it was not for you, but for Martin.
Life still has to go on, and Thomas Winterberg's shots are slow and unhurried, moving slowly towards the subject. Two tormented souls stalked and wandered in the darkness like submarines in the deep sea, with no target and no turning point in sight.
Nick's mentally handicapped friend accidentally killed the female neighbor. Nick unfortunately took the blame. He didn't want to argue because it didn't matter. In prison, he met his younger brother, who was arrested for drug trafficking. There is so much to say and nothing to say. The sky has been snowing all the time, and the memories are all frozen in such a double-breathing weather. They were always looking for the light left in their childhood that enveloped them through the sheets. They have grown too fast and have too much left behind. I have always carried the little brother's blue face before he died, so how can a submarine that sneaks with such a heavy load emerge to the surface?
Two hours, two periods of someone else's life, easily dragged me to the darkest place. The whole person is like soaking in cold water, unable to catch anything, and everything is nothingness. It was not until the subtitles appeared at the end of the film that I exhaled the long breath in my heart and my heart was able to wake up again.
I remember a sentence I once read, "No night can make me fall asleep, no dawn can wake me up." Nick brothers seem to be in such a state of life. Searched, hit, suffered, struggled. When people are desperate to the extreme, they will have the instinct to seek liberation. It is not that they cannot face it, but that there is a way out. So in the end, the second child chose to commit suicide, and finally he said to his brother, "I don't think it was our fault." It
saved all those who couldn't bear it.
Nick's necrotic hands cleared him of his crime, and he went to his brother's funeral, pulling Martin, who were born close to him. Nick looked at Martin, he knew he would be in charge of this little boy's life, his, his brother's, and the love they didn't have time to give to his little brother, all to Martin.
Martin, he is the light of all.
When the chant sounded, Nick seemed to see the light, as if he had returned to his youth, and he and the second child were flipping through the book to name the little brother. They thought about it for a long time, and figured it out again and again.
Finally, the young Nick said, just call him Martin.
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