Media365
Whalefall movie review: In this film, the way to a father’s heart lies literally through a whale’s stomach. Literally.
As if Austin Abrams wasn’t put through enough hell in the recent Resident Evil, he returns for Whalefall, adapted from a book, where he spends 90% of the time being tossed around in the belly of a beast which is a sperm whale.
It’s an ambitious project for sure, and director Brian Duffield is seriously committed to it, not giving us a break from all that could lie in that giant mammal’s insides, from digestive acids to the remains of things swallowed up by it, to a lot of other floating and hanging stuff that it’s best left to one’s imagination. What it boils down to is Abrams’s Jay being squeezed multiple times between sinewy, slithering, throbbing walls and – you guessed it right – surviving.
What has landed the college-going Jay in this situation is memories of his dad Mitt (Josh Brolin), who was a well-known scuba driver locally – the kind of rough man’s man who has many admirers for his ocean-hewn wisdom and knowledge but who does not know how to converse with his son.
Mitt also has a wife (Elisabeth Shue) and two daughters, presumably elder to Jay. So inconsequential are the three that the film doesn’t even bother giving them a name.
After one particularly bad exchange with Mitt, who is already pretty beat due to cancer, Jay leaves to join college in Iowa. That would be their last meeting and, partly due to guilt, partly due to anger, Jay does not visit him during his last days in hospital, nor goes to his grave or read the letter Mitt left behind for each member of the family. Mitt did so before jumping to death into the sea.
So, Jay decides a year later to salvage that guilt by trying to find his remains. Once that expedition lands him inside the sperm whale’s stomach, it is the many, many discourses Mitt delivered to him over the years about the sea and the whale that lead Jay out. During the course of this, the whale and Mitt become one, metaphorically.
Story continues below this ad
It’s not that dire as that sounds, but it is not much better either. Abrams, a fine actor, does what he can to convey fear in many forms, and Brolin’s rippling-muscled, tattooed frame fits right into this world where people say things like: “Kids can be predators, you must become a dangerous prey”; “A whale is forever”; and “Survivors survive”.
The sound effects and cinematography when Jay first dives into the ocean are stunning, particularly the clickety sound of the whale’s movement, coming to us muffled through the water.
Also Read – Jailer 2 movie review: Hrithik Roshan delivers biggest high in Rajinikanth’s star-studded actioner
The story’s arc, sadly, is not that convincing, neither Mitt’s nor Jay’s, with the women in their lives ignored to the point that it is criminal. Especially Shue, who has been waiting for a deserving role for a very long time.
Story continues below this ad
Jay may have been swallowed whole but it is she who feels chewed and spat out.
Whalefall movie director: Brian Duffield
Whalefall movie cast: Austin Abrams, Josh Brolin, Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz
Whalefall movie rating: 2.5 stars
