This thing was rough. Setting aside the implausibility, Brian Duffield’s (Underwater, No One Will Save You) Whalefall still doesn’t offer anything we haven’t seen before. The imperfect father-son relationship. The conversations we had, and the ones we didn’t. The anger. The wishing we had one more day together. The regret. The guilt. Duffield uses an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale that swallows his lead character whole as the vessel for his story of life, loss, and redemption.
One year after his father, Mitt (Josh Brolin – The Dog Stars, Sicario), a deep sea diving legend turned cancer-ridden sufferer, commits suicide by sinking himself with weights attached to his body in an ocean bay, Jay (Austin Abrams – Resident Evil, The Starling Girl) makes the decision to gear up with his scuba suit and search the floor of where his father sank, hoping to find his father’s bone or some other remnant that can give closure for him, his mother Zara (Elizabeth Shue – Leaving Las Vegas, Hollow Man), and his two sisters who haven’t successfully reconciled with the fact that the tomb they visit at the graveyard is empty. Great premise…
First, the good.
- It’s a well-shot film. We spend three-quarters of the film with Jay inside the sperm whale. It’s dark, gooey, and tight. Duffield creates a set that makes us feel like we’re inside the whale, gasping, fidgeting nervously, and feeling as claustrophobic as Jay as the terror sets in.
- Duffield wastes no time getting us into the heart of the story. He uses flashbacks to tell Jay and Mitt’s story. He uses flashbacks to draw us in, rather than to get many of those components out of the way before the encounter with the whale.
- Josh Brolin. It took me from seeing the film to writing this review (a week later) to see Mitt’s character in a different light. Afterward, I thought that, much like Shue (more on that below), Whalefall was a waste of Brolin’s time and effort. He was on screen for so little time, and his appearances were all disjointed flashbacks. As I write this, I’ve changed my perspective on Mitt and can see how Brolin brought this character to life. Brolin’s portrayal of Mitt often felt stern but misguided. While he was harsh with Jay, I think we were supposed to feel that Mitt’s frustration came from not being the father Jay needed, but not knowing how to change. Duffield did us no favors with the disconnected, non-linear flashbacks that tried to show us Jay understood each of his father’s lessons.
Now, the bad.
- It felt hollow. It’s not that it lacked substance. More so, when it tried to deliver, it failed. Whether it was the flashbacks of Jay and Mitt or the physical and mental obstacles Jay endured, it all felt flat. I didn’t care about Jay’s character. The flashbacks didn’t reveal anything I didn’t expect once we learned that the two clashed when Jay was growing up.
- The single-character-led story arc. It’s been 25 years since Tom Hanks was stranded on an island in Cast Away, which became the template for a movie with an actor who spent the majority of the runtime without another actor. Other films that do this successfully include I Am Legend, All Is Lost, 127 Hours, Gravity, Life of Pi, Arctic, and others. Whalefall isn’t even the best movie to explore this style this fall. Brad Pitt gave a fantastic performance in Heart of the Beast just weeks before this film’s release. Each film had lead characters who made me feel something and stories that kept me engaged.
- The flashbacks weren’t great. They were meant to evoke emotion as the audience learns about their complicated father-son relationship. It didn’t hit. We were supposed to learn why Mitt was the way he was, or how this formed Jay into the man he was. Instead, we learned that Jay went to college in Iowa, about as far from either ocean as he could get.
- Austin Abrams wasn’t ready for this role. The films listed above include such actors as Will Smith, Robert Redford, Mads Mikkelsen, Sandra Bullock, and James Franco. These actors had decades of experience before taking these roles. Abrams was 29 during filming, and while his career started 15 years earlier, he had little beyond guest appearances on television or bit parts in movies until a couple of supporting roles in 2017 (Brad’s Status, All Summer’s End). He did fine as Jay, but it was neither remarkable nor memorable. Abrams wasn’t ready to carry a film. I never felt like I was watching a character and not the actor.
- Elizabeth Shue wasted away in this role. Zara’s character was so insignificant that anyone could have played her. I wish she had been involved in a different project, though I understand her options might be limited, or that this role offered her the salary she wanted for a film. Either way, Zara was so uninvolved that her character was barely needed. The film was based on a 2023 book. Perhaps Zara played a bigger role in the source material, which would have given her more story.
My biggest grip with Whalefall is that it didn’t offer anything new to the genre. It felt like it wanted to be a film like 127 Hours or Life of Pi, but it lacked the script, the director, the actor, or anything else to meet the lofty standards set by these two incredible films. Instead, it tried to borrow parts and hope for the best. Many will like this film and think that Abrams excelled as Jay. If it’s one of the first films a viewer sees like this, it’ll get the benefit of the doubt. Abrams does cater to a younger audience, which is a great hook.
The film’s trailers and promotional materials successfully make it look like a taut, pulse-inducing survival thriller. That’s not what Whalefall is. It’s much more tender and meant to be more thought-provoking. Abrams had to hit on the fear, frustration, and hopelessness of his situation. For us to connect narratively, the audience had to believe that Jay was going through extreme physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual pain. For those who can meet him halfway, the movie might work. Even though Jay seems like an everyday person who shows poor judgment, makes mistakes, and acts selfishly, his character still felt distant. It felt like Abrams was working with a green screen, even with the film’s true-to-life set pieces. I wish I could have connected with it more.
Plot 6/10
Character Development 6/10
Character Chemistry 6/10
Acting 6/10
Screenplay 6/10
Directing 7/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 7/10
Universal Relevance 6/10
68%
C-
Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie