Whalefall wants to deliver a profound message, but it doesn’t make it to us eloquently enough
I understand what Whalefall is trying to say. The movie, based on Daniel Kraus’s hit book, seems to want to tell us that whales are immensely important to the world, and that we are interconnected with that world. Our small size wants to be in charge of all of it, of the whole world, and is ruining it. Meanwhile the largest animal, the one with entire open ocean to navigate and experience, is actually the most confined, the victim of our push to take control.
So by all that math we’re connected to whales. Like our ancestors and many of our brethren today we do, in fact, need to honor and respect the whales because they are a reflection of the world we live in.
And what better way to show that connection than to be eaten by one?
It’s an idea that could work in a narrative, that does work in a book (I haven’t read the book), but it skips over so much in this movie on its way to say it that it feels like a point that needs to be made rather than one that’s organically made.
It just doesn’t feel earned.
The first two thirds of the film tell a fairly standard father and son relationship story, intertwined with Austin Abrams having been eaten alive by a sperm whale. There’s a metaphor there, being the small human trapped in a giant whale, claustrophobic because of our choices, of the world. (See above for my rambling). There are some pretty impressive visual effects, and full moments where I audibly squirmed, not just physically. I’m claustrophobic myself, so this portrayed situation had me at times taking deep breaths in my theater seat. It’s goopy. Can I say goopy? Sure. It’s GOOPY.
The audio matches that level of effects by really being a standout feature of the film. It’s borderline underwater ASMR. Water splashing, tank air being expunged, and the clicking of a whale is impressive. The sonar effect that the production staff have created here is, to say the very least, ethereal. “WHOA” is the only acceptable reaction when it hits the screen, and our ears, for the first time.
Having just completed my first ever full reading of Melville’s Moby-Dick I’ve been all in on content and stories about our cold water mammalian elders. And while I didn’t LOVE that book in particular I can appreciate the excruciating details about whales; often times during Whalefall I found myself relating a little more than usual, understanding that these are massive creatures with emotions and families, with whole societies, and even with some level of vengeance for the predicament we’ve put them in.
We witness Abrams learning some of that, from his neurotic, often drunk and overbearing father (played by Josh Brolin). Abrams is, in a way, taking the vengeance of the whales and pointing it towards the relationship with his father.
So much of the film is about resolution, about escape, and yet Abrams can’t seem to do it. Not from the sperm whale, not from his father’s expectations, not even from his family’s acceptance of his father’s fate. No matter what he tries, what little things he learns from his past that could help him, it’s futile. He can’t escape the whale or himself. We’re drawn in because of the mess, because of the unbelievability of the increasing things Abrams puts himself through, making us cringe in our seat, but at some point we’re done being shocked and we’re just waiting for the inevitable.
The third act centers on that inevitability and yet squanders it, racing to the ending and compressing emotional sequences to give jolts of ideas. Going from two acts of claustrophobic horror to a third one that’s essentially a weird, introspective sci-fi action fantasy film loses the momentum and the tension.
It’s entertaining, I’ll give them that. We do want to see if and how we all escape the whale. We are bought in.
But when the credits roll we’re just happy we’re out of the stomach.
2/5 ⭐⭐
OK
Whalefall is distributed by 20th Century Studios and is in theaters now. This review is based on a press screening attended by the Editor. Read about how we do our reviews here.
