What happens when you pitch “you’re going to get eaten by an 80-foot sperm whale, but the movie’s going to be an existential crisis about the fever dreams you have about reconciling with your dead father”? Well, you get Brian Duffield adapting Daniel Kraus’ book and directing Austin Abrams in another career-cementing performance of emotional and sort of hilarious proportions. Going into Whalefall, I just thought “this is a movie about a dude getting eaten by a whale”, but I ended up slightly emotionally traumatized about this character being eaten by a sperm whale. There is so much to unpack, and while not an original idea, Duffield’s screenwriting still goes unmatched and his direction is still masterful cementing himself as one of the best up and coming talents we have currently.
Whalefall focuses on the Gardiner family reeling from the death of their father, Mitt (Josh Brolin) as his wife, Zara (Elizabeth Shue) and daughters Eva (Jane Levy) and Nan (Emily Rudd) all had a significantly better relationship with Mitt than his son, Jay (Austin Abrams) did. The essence of the relationship between Jay and Mitt is tough love, but in reality it was a lot of harsh love, abuse, and bad parenting that ultimately taught some lessons but was never really ‘good’ parenting. Jay has returned home after leaving for school in Iowa, and after seeing how much pain his sisters and mom are in, he decides to go back out diving – the skill he learned to hate due to his father, so he can try to recover his father’s body. His father was diagnosed with something terminal and decided to take his own life by weighing himself down in the ocean rather than dying in a hospital bed. Once he starts his dive, despite the area being sanctioned off due to dangerous conditions, he finds himself fighting a sperm whale – well, fighting a squid whose been consumed by the sperm whale and does not want to be consumed, and drags Jay down with him, literally. While Jay is now fighting for survival, with only an hour left of oxygen, he constantly falls in and out of consciousness he visits memories with his dad, what led to their turmoil and ultimately the ‘lessons’ he had dawned upon him.
For a movie that is as claustrophobic and intense as Whalefall, the introduction led by Peter Kuplowski, where he stated “it’s Sam Raimi meets Terrence Malick,” and after witnessing Duffield’s Whalefall, that is a scary accurate statement. Moments of sheer horror and uncomfortable atmosphere double back and juxtapose my humanity and awful family dynamics, truly helping captivate the brutality of Whalefall both figuratively and literally. Truly one of the years most gut wrenching and ultimately horrifying, unexpected gems that survives in equal parts to Duffield’s marvelous direction and adaptation as well as Abrams’ powerhouse performance.
While no one is doubting the abilities of Elizabeth Shue or Josh Brolin (nor should they) or the expertise and talents of Jane Levy and Emily Rudd, they’re all supporting and don’t add anything truly remarkable to Whalefall. Realistically, the movie really only needs Brolin for a supporting cast, and even then he plays horrible so effortlessly well, but there is no maliciousness or reason other than “you’re my son and you must be tough” behind it which detracts from the driving force behind Jay’s care given to his father’s disinterest in him as a person and trying to shape him to be in his image. Austin, though, is simply electric. Through his visible pain he feels for his family, realizing their father’s casket is empty and trying to give them answers, to the subtle disappointment he wears on his face in every flashback, to the sheer will for survival and fight for his life that pushes for nearly 106 minutes – Abrams proves he’s the real deal and excels at having simply the worst possible day ever.
Whalefall is not at all the movie expected by seeing a poster and seeing a teaser. It is, however, the movie that the synopsis sets up and the further trailers promote, so just know this movie about a diver getting swallowed by a sperm whale is a lot more than just a movie about escaping a sperm whale. It is the underdog family drama and trauma movie that no one expected, that features being swallowed by a sperm whale and the inevitable escape that needs to occur to ensure ones survival. Austin Abrams continues to be MVP, and Brian Duffield continues to be the new voice that continues to hit home runs.
