Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Oh boy. This movie. Here’s The Whale‘s tone-setter opening scene: Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a reclusive online college writing professor, has a heart episode while watching homosexual pornography.

Hard launch. Over the course of the first act, we get to know Charlie as a man who struggles with immense grief and guilt — years ago he left his wife and eight-year-old daughter for Alan, a young man in his writing class. But since Alan died, he’s been slowly shutting himself off from the world. And gaining weight.

Despite his size and health conditions, he refuses to go to the hospital, no matter how dire things get. He’s running out of time, he knows it, and that’s where the story really begins.

THE PLOT

As he struggles to breathe in that opening scene, a young missionary, Thomas (Ty Simpkins), knocks on his door. At first a purely expository device, Thomas grows into the story through his interactions with Ellie (Sadie Sink), Charlie’s teenage daughter, and Liz (Hong Chau), Charlie’s friend and nurse who is later revealed to be Alan’s sister.

Thanks to a slow pace, we see deeply into Charlie’s daily life. He leaves money for pizza from Gambino’s in his mailbox and has Dan the delivery guy leave the boxes on the porch. During his classes, he never turns his camera on. He struggles with everything; standing up without assistance is impossible.

Liz becomes increasingly worried about Charlie’s health as we, in turn, learn more about his past through conversations with Ellie and Thomas. There are a lot of eating montages and scenes of Charlie attempting to execute simple household activities. Eventually, Mary (Samantha Morton), his ex-wife, appears and they have a heartfelt conversation about their daughter and their relationship. Yada yada yada.

Soon after, while listening to Ellie read her eighth-grade essay aloud, Charlie takes his (metaphorical?) final steps before dying. His story ends.

We, on the other hand, are left wondering what the message of his life was supposed to be.

THE REST

Fraser gives a performance that’s committed and sometimes moving — but the script does him no favors. The line deliveries often feel wrong. They’re meant to be coming across as exasperated and hurt, but it just feels flat. Ellie brings a chaotic energy that swings between cruelty & connection and becomes the emotional heart of the movie (a role I think was meant for Charlie). Sadie Sink deserves her flowers. Hong Chau had some good moments.

The movie leans hard into symbolism — constant references to Moby Dick via Ellie’s essay, religious missionaries, recurring flashbacks of beach walks from simpler times — but it all feels more like clutter than anything else. Beats sometimes feel orchestrated to extract emotion, but get so self-aware that the impact is lost (the Three Musketeers in the drawer, Charlie floating in a burst of heavenly light).

THE CONTROVERSIES

Obviously, Charlie was played by Fraser in a metamorphic prosthetic suit; director Darren Aronofsky opted not to cast an actor with obesity.

In a good summary of the internet’s general feelings, writer Aubrey Gordon tweeted: “If the only way you can ‘humanize’ a very fat person is to watch them humiliated, terrified, ashamed & killed off in a stereotypically stigmatizing way, it’s time to do some serious reflecting.”

Aronofsky has stated that putting on costumes is “what actors do.” 

FLASH FACTS

• The film was based on Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 off-Broadway play.
• It took Fraser 5-6 hours a day to get into costume, and he worked with a dance instructor for several months to help him learn how to move believably with the added weight.
  • The production team also partnered with Dr. Rachel Goldman, an eating disorder specialist and psychiatrist, to help them write the script with sensitivity and empathy.
• Television clips of the 2016 presidential election are often seen in the background because Aronofsky wanted to be sure it was clear this story takes place before the COVID-19 lockdowns.
• Fraser won an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Whale.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I don’t think this movie ever figures out whether it wants to confront its subject or just ogle him. It’s not always clear what it’s trying to say beyond “this is hard to watch.”

It’s packed with heavy themes: shame, loss, religious guilt, emotional self-sabotage, but at times almost collapses under the weight of everything it’s trying so hard to show us.

The Whale is messy. Most of the performances don’t land. The symbolism is screaming. It’s trying to tell a story about how people hurt each other and how they make it right. I’m not sure it succeeds.

this movie is bad.

My rating: 2/5

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