‘Whalefall’: Every Question You Might Have About the Movie, Answered
Surprisingly, it does not. But is this whale a metaphor? Yes and no. I can’t stress enough that Jay is swallowed by a literal whale. While he’s in there, though, he’s also processing the death of his difficult father. As his oxygen dwindles, he starts hallucinating the voice of his father, played by Brolin, and gradually finds closure and the strength to survive his unusual ordeal. Eventually, Brolin starts speaking not only as Jay’s father, but also as the creature that has swallowed Jay. As a friend of mine put it, “The whale is actually your dad that sucks.” Are you telling me this is really a movie about trauma? It’s about grief, which is totally different. It’s also sorta-kinda about humans ruining the whales’ natural habitat. In an early flashback scene, Brolin says that there are too many boats in the bay, which are “making the whales go crazy.” Presumably, the whale that consumes Jay wouldn’t have been in the position to do that if not for the folly of man. It’s a climate …
