THE WHALE is a mid-range budget BBC film detailing the sinking of the Essex by a vengeful whale, a story that was memorably made into a novel, MOBY DICK, by Herman Melville. A new big-budget Hollywood production starring Chris Hemsworth is being made of the story, and I hope they do a better job than they did here. It's not that THE WHALE is bad per se, it's just very ordinary, very indifferent, and very predictable.
The problem is that this is strictly family fare and it can't hold a match to bigger, better, shipwreck productions like LIFE OF PI. The storyline is tells is rather predictable and the scriptwriter fails to bring much in the way or gravitas or drama to the situation. Too much of the arguing between the captain and the first mate is simply repetitive.
In a bid to draw in viewers, the BBC have assembled a mildly impressive cast, headlined by Martin Sheen who narrates the story in his dotage. Unfortunately the leads Charles Furness and Adam Rayner simply don't have the acting chops for this material, while Robin Hood himself, Jonas Armstrong, is one-dimensional. John Boyega and Paul Kaye are much better, but hidden way down the cast list. Add in some very lackluste CGI whale effects and you have a middling TV movie at best.
