Whalefall

Directed by Brian Duffield, Whalefall follows Austin Abrams’ Jay Gardiner as he’s swallowed by a whale while trying to find his dead father’s (Josh Brolin’s Mitt) remains. It’s decidedly unexpected subject matter that’s employed to watchable (if somewhat disappointing) effect by Duffield, as the filmmaker, armed with his and Daniel Kraus’ screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced endeavor that gets off to a low-key start with nary a single clue as to where the narrative’s going – with the movie, at the outset, coming off as a small-scale, subdued drama about a young man attempting to cope with the sudden death of his pop. And while the initial confrontation with the aforementioned whale is extremely well-done and legitimately exciting, Whalefall, beyond that point, progresses into a hit-and-miss midsection that spends an awful lot of time dwelling on Jay’s far-from-enthralling efforts at escaping from the creature’s stomach. The recurring inclusion of flashback sequences detailing the character’s past interaction with Brolin’s commanding, intimidating figure does provide the movie with a few compelling (albeit overly sentimental) interludes, at least, which does, in the end, confirm Whalefall‘s place as an interesting experiment that works just sporadically enough to warrant a mild recommendation.

**1/2 out of ****