Michael's Movie Grade: C
An okay thriller.
This movie involves a young man who is eaten by a whale. He is trying to survive in that whale and escape before he is completely swallowed.
The main reason to watch this movie is Austin Abrams performance. Once again, he is simply fantastic here. He has to spend much of the film being the only person on screen. Yet he holds our attention perfectly and hitting every needed emotional beat. The visuals are also surprisingly good here. The idea seems very visually limited, but the filmmakers find a way to make it feel cinematic. There is a lot of imagination on display in these scenes as well as a real sense of claustrophobia.
Despite its virtues this is far from being a classic. Spending the majority of the movie inside a whale leads to a very repetitive experience and can honestly get kind of boring at times. The father son drama at the heart of the story never truly connects as it just follows typical story beats in a bland and forgettable way. The main problem with the film though is that it takes itself too seriously. The plot is ridiculous and silly. To make this kind of plot work, the film needs to fully lean into this silliness or to embrace a sense of fantasy. However, what we get here treats the story in a completely earnest way, while trying to also present itself as something realistic.
Despite a strong lead performance and great visuals, on a narrative level there is nothing to make this story stand out.
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