When I first saw the trailer for Whalefall, I was instantly struck by how unusual it looked. Part Moby-Dick, part Jaws, part horror and family drama, all centred around the relationship between a father and son. I couldn’t remember seeing a film quite like it. On that premise alone, it appeared to be one of the most intriguing films arriving this year.

And while the struggle between father and son sits at the crux of its narrative, Whalefall takes that relationship into further, darker depths. It is a deeply claustrophobic, at times nauseating survival tale with a surprisingly affecting emotional heart.

 

Following the death of his father, Mitt, Jay Gardiner dives off California’s Central Coast in search of his remains. But that journey takes a horrifying turn when Jay is swallowed by a massive sperm whale. Trapped inside its belly with his oxygen running out, he must draw on the lessons his father taught him to have any chance of escaping.

 

It is an extraordinary situation in which to place a character, but what makes Whalefall compelling is how closely its physical struggle connects with its emotional one. This is the story of a father and son wrapped inside a desperate battle for survival. The man whose influence Jay struggles to reconcile may also have given him the knowledge he needs to live.

 

There is an obvious temptation to draw comparisons with the ancient story of Jonah and the great fish. For me, the similarities extend beyond the startling image of a man trapped inside a sea creature. There are echoes here of running from suffering, of being forced into a confrontation with what we would rather avoid, and of trying to make sense of the painful contradictions within humanity.

 

In Jay’s case, those contradictions are bound up in his deeply fractured relationship with his father. The film gives that relationship room to be complicated. Hurt, resentment and the possibility of love occupy the same space, making Jay’s struggle with his father’s memory far more affecting than a straightforward journey towards forgiveness would have been. Understanding someone does not suddenly make the damage they caused disappear.

 

Alongside that emotional story, the survival elements are frequently gruelling. There are moments that you watch through gritted teeth and barely open eyes as Jay attempts whatever might keep him alive. The confined space, the pain and the sheer unpleasantness of his predicament make for an experience that can feel physically uncomfortable. Even the smallest action becomes an ordeal when there is so little room, so little time and so much that can go wrong.

 

Austin Abrams is superb as Jay. He makes the terror and exhaustion convincing while carrying the emotional weight of a young man whose relationship with his father remains painfully unresolved. We need to believe both struggles for the film to work, and Abrams gives us a reason to remain invested in each.

 

Josh Brolin brings a blustering, barnacle-encrusted heart to Mitt. There is a roughness to the performance that makes his presence loom over the film, even when the immediate focus is on Jay’s survival. As more shades of humanity emerge, Brolin adds nuance without smoothing away the character’s difficult edges. The relationship gains its depth through the writing, certainly, but also through the superb work of these two actors. The film does stumble a little in its third and final act.

 

As Jay’s experience becomes increasingly hallucinatory, the whale seems almost to take on the presence of his father. There is something understandable, and potentially moving, in that connection as the creature descends into the blackness of the ocean. At times, however, the symbolism begins to overwhelm the already compelling physical and psychological situation.

 

The relationship between Jay’s memories and his immediate predicament is strong enough that it doesn’t always need to be pushed quite so far. I found myself wanting the film to trust the power of what it had already established. Even with that stumble, Whalefall remains a truly unusual and intriguing film.

 

Beneath its nauseating survival ordeal is a heartbreaking, moving and insightful exploration of a father and son, given complexity by strong writing and superb performances from Abrams and Brolin. Claustrophobic, unsettling and unexpectedly tender, it gives its extraordinary premise a human heart.