“Whalefall” comes from the mind of author Daniel Kraus, with his 2023 book following the panic and pain of a young man processing the death of his father, going diving in the ocean to work through his complex feelings. It’s the stuff of classic literature, pitting man against nature during a tender time of extraordinary vulnerabilities. The main character is soon sucked into the mouth of a roving sperm whale, left with an hour of oxygen to find his way out, which is the stuff of classic survival cinema. Director Brian Duffield (who did well with 2020’s “Spontaneous” and 2023’s “No One Will Save You”) has the challenge of merging two sides of “Whalefall,” and he’s mostly successful with the adaptation, making sense of interior lives and ferocious battles for air and several forms of liberation, keeping suspense mostly involved with a story that deals with whale-related horror, but primarily wants to be a study of fathers and sons. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com
Leave a Reply