Check your subscription status, update your details and more. Whalefall review: Worth watching for the bits inside a sperm whale Based on Daniel Kraus’s novel, this film about a diver swallowed by a sperm whale is terrifically gruesome – and far too sentimental, says Bethan Ackerley Austin Abrams as Jay Gardiner in a sticky situation in Whalefall I’ll cut to the chase: _Whalefall_, a film about a diver who gets swallowed by a sperm whale and has only an hour to escape, is fantastic when it focuses on that very scenario. But every scene not set in a cetacean – and there are a surprising number – is an utter chore to sit through.
It’s hard to argue with the power of the premise, taken from the novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus, who co-wrote the film with director Brian Duffield. The singularly nightmarish predicament sits just on the right side of plausible for things not to feel _too_ ridiculous, and to warrant plenty of post-viewing chat with friends about what you might do in such a sorry situation. That is, if you can persuade anyone to watch it with you – not a single person of my acquaintance took up the spare ticket I had on offer, or even made it through the stomach-churning trailer.
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