On Screen: “Whalefall”
Whalefall
Although it’s believed that Jonah may have been swallowed by a whale, “Whalefall” is the first film I’ve seen that takes that Biblical story seriously.
“Whalefall” is a survival thriller in which deep-sea diver Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) is literally swallowed by a sperm whale while he’s searching for the remains of his gruff, emotionally abusive father Mitt (Josh Brolin).
When Jay, who goes to college in Iowa, returns home to Monterey on the California coast for the one-year anniversary of his father’s death, he decides to hunt for “just one bone” of his father’s body.
Donning scuba gear early one morning, he plunges into the pounding surf at the edge of a steep underwater canyon off Monastery Beach.
Deep in the phosphorescent green kelp forest, Jay mistakes a sea sponge for a skull before he gets tangled in the tentacles of a giant squid that’s being pursued by a sperm whale.
Once he’s trapped in the belly of the beast, Jay’s thin ray of hope of escape lies with a bioluminescent jellyfish and the oceanic wisdom imparted by his father.
Gasping and grunting, Jay slithers and squirms, determined to recall and utilize the many “The ocean always provides” seafaring lessons he’s heard in order to escape from the slippery, slimy chambers of the whale’s squishy digestive system before his oxygen runs out.
Based on Daniel Kraus’s 2023 novel and adapted by Kraus and director Brian Duffield, it utilizes episodic flashbacks to delve into the complexities of a deeply troubled, unresolved father-son relationship, eventually focusing on the importance of forgiveness and healing.
Wasting the talents of Elisabeth Shue, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd, the underdeveloped female members of the Gardiner family are barely tangential to the story.
FYI: “Whalefall” is a term that describes how the sinking carcass of a dead whale feeds an entire ecosystem, nourishing countless other marine forms on the ocean floor for decades.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Whalefall” is a horrifyingly claustrophobic yet soggy 6 — playing in theaters.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.