'Fathom' Documentary Review: Wasted Potential
I've returned to the wonderful world of documentaries as of late. A genre of film I absolutely love, but are often plagued with just terrible trash. I only have a few weeks of Apple TV+ left and decided to check out what it had to offer; there admittedly isn't much at all, a razor thin library in general on there. But the nature side of things piqued my curiosity, I am always happy to see new cinematic perspectives and stories on the world we find ourselves part of, ready to learn more about it. The sense of discovery that can be felt in the world given the sheer scale of it. I think such sorts of documentaries humble you a bit, to see the natural side of the world that we need to cherish more. the delicate side of it all, and our own place in it all. It's strange to see how mystical the world can really be sometimes, that realisation of how odd some of the animals around us truly are. A lot of the time those are the animals we can't really see, the tiny insects; though also the magnificent that roam the oceans. Almost alien in design.
Ocean documentaries truly fascinate me. From the animals that are nearby, often breaching the surface, lurking in the reefs, or those that roam the bottom of the oceans. Those in the total darkness that contain the horrors of our imaginations. I'd be lying if I said the ocean didn't scare me a little. That scale of it. Not knowing what's beneath you. The lack of escape possibilities. The ocean is a place void of order. It's as natural as things can get, and there's no surprise that there we see the more historic of natural creations, the early process of evolution in desperate bids to survive under any circumstance; predatory or defensive methods. So when I came across Fathom, a documentary that focused on whales, and their methods of communication, I got incredibly curious. An area of the ocean that I feel is often ignored: the language side of things. The ways in which such creatures communicate, and our attempts to understand how and why they communicate in the ways they do.
Though, Fathom became something that I just could not deal with. It lost its magic very quickly. Which is highly disappointing given that potential it had to really say something meaningful. To the point in which I don't think I could actually recommend it. Given a clear divergence from what was the subject, to too much focus on its people, that we just could not find a reason to care for. After all, this was a documentary on the development of language and how to understand whales.
Fathom starts off with an incredibly strong introduction. There's mystery to it, the idea that whales and their language are this strange, otherworldly sound that must be understood. There's the idea that this group of scientists can replicate these sounds, ultimately trying to find ways to communicate with the whales of the oceans by sending out songs to them, also luring them into specific areas for study in the process. A bit of trickery, that they admit they aren't necessarily proud of, since the whales then think they're communicating and finding others to join with. This idea is incredibly fascinating, that concept that you can create contributions to an animal's language and have it actually integrate with it, copy it and reply. I was watching the documentary with such curiosity over how it may go forward, under the assumption that the documentary may explore it in more depth, even showing more of it in other ways.
The narration to begin with adds to it, bringing in some context, pulling you in. But the problem is that the documentary then just completely stops its main point. It starts to ignore the whales. Sometimes we hear the beautiful sounds of whales singing to each other. That high pitched sound, or their ticking noises that vibrate through the water. Those are such incredible sounds to hear, something so mystifying and beautiful at the same time. But it doesn't do enough to keep interest, as the documentary then begins to focus more on the scientists themselves. And these scientists aren't exactly interesting people. I didn't mind some depth behind them, how long they have been doing this for, why they're doing it, for example. But it goes beyond that, there's more and more dialogue between them that just doesn't really have a purpose in the documentary: "Hey do you think you'll bring your kids out here one day?" Why do we need to hear and see this? What's the relevance here?
It only gets worse as the documentary progresses. It loses its touch entirely, and by the midway point you'll already have lost interest and be tempted to shut it off. But here and there it returns to the whales, it shows glimpses of what they're doing, but rarely explores it beyond that. Very few technical details that work alongside it. Mostly just cinematic footage on the boats or from land. And while the cinematic side of things is done quite well, especially in the colour grading, again it just diverges too much. Even the lack of visuals on the replies from whales.
What made things worse was that the more we actually learn about the scientists, the more insufferable the documentary begins to be. As they start speaking about themselves more, even so much to complain about how it's hard to be a woman in that industry. We start to see them fooling around on land, even to the point where the documentary includes them on a tyre swing, for some reason. It began to feel less like a nature documentary and more a YouTube video in which people vlog while sometimes doing some science things. It made me curious as to whether the whole documentary was filmed entirely by one crew or not, or whether it was split between different creatives which then had their own agendas to promote in the film. That's the feeling it began to give off, going from something being more atmospheric and mystical, to losing that magic entirely.
It's disappointing, because that area of the science is genuinely interesting. There's a lot to explore regarding it, a lot of interesting stories in the chase to understand language and bring some more connection to humans and the animal kingdom. How some animals may have easier patterns in their methods of communicating that could lead to some form of communication between different animals. Not to say that we'd be throwing out full on conversations, but getting a glimpse into how these animals share emotions, ideas regarding food and a hunt for example. The calls they make to each other to meet. And of course these patterns are not always the same, yet equally understood. So that depth, that idea that we could contribute to it, find the frame behind such calls that construct meaning, even down to how the brain may interpret it.
Fathom does none of this. It merely hints at it. Leaving you bored and wanting more focus on what really matters. These are ultimately the reasons as to why I don't think Fathom is really worth your time. There are far more fascinating documentaries out there to check out that do give more interesting perspectives and imagery. Ones that are really crafted with some true dedication and passion. And I just didn't feel that for most of Fathom, I felt that it quickly changed and didn't know what it wanted to say, almost to the point where it didn't really say anything in the end. Ironic for a documentary that is supposed to be about language.
It could've been a documentary that did focus more on the people behind it, but I don't think it was clear enough in its intent. Nor do I feel that this was what it initially tried to do. It's hard to think of this documentary and find the middle-ground, to understand it and consider it in a less harsher light. I just don't think it is possible, so yeah, skip it. I guess, in the end, I just couldn't fathom the point of it all.
Sounds like they set out to make that doco but whales being whales and the ocean being the ocean they were unable to get enough of the content they actually needed within time/budget/both constraints so it became 98% filler.