Oliver Tate

' "She’s the only person I would allow to be shrunk to microscopic size and explore me in a tiny submersible machine." ' Troubled, eccentric, and ridiculously well-spoken. Oliver Tate has the vocabulary of William Shakespeare combined with the angst of a typical 15-year old boy. Despite having a good vocabulary he, is struggling to find his true self and seems to make unjust decisions, which go against the conventional views of ethics and morality. For example, He learns that the death of a pet prior to the death of a loved one would alleviate the pain of the grieving process, and decides to poison Jordana's dog.

Throughout the film, there is more evidence of his insecurity with how he truly fit into the society that he lived in. We see him thinking about whether he would be missed if he died suddenly one day, and from this, his insecurity of trying to find himself in all the mess comes to be.

Much of Oliver's personality is shaped by the actions of his father Graham. When he finds out that his father is fighting a losing battle with depression, he looks through all the daytime-TV and pop-psychology information at his command, as well as his uninhibited imagination to put things right again. His desire, almost obsession with order is clearly conveyed throughout the film, such as his neat schoolboy attire that he always wears, his unconventional ways of restoring order to his parent's relationship, such as urinating on the neighbour's property, as well as his attempt to murder Jordana's dog to help her in preparation of her mother's death should it have happened.

Another interesting concept about Oliver is his apparent romantic nature when he was with Jordana. He seemed to represent a more 'feminine' approach to his relationship with Jordana, where Oliver is more focused on love and emotion, while Jordana almost downright rejects it, perceiving emotions as 'gay'. This interchanged gender role allows the audience to remain somewhat indifferent to Oliver's ideologies, while being sympathetic for his strange life and experiences he encounters along the way.

Source
Submarine Study Guide