Review of The Whale, directed by Darren Aronofsky

When The Whale first came out in theaters, I remember I was debating whether I should see it or not. At the time I wasn’t reading the online discourse about the movie and didn’t know that it could be considered controversial by some, but I had seen the trailer before and knew that it was out when I had just gotten my subscription.

As the days dwindled by and I stared at my AMC app figuring out what I wanted to see that week, The Whale simply was something that didn’t interest me at the end of the day. So I skipped it. Many months later, I was in the DVD section of my library when I spotted the DVD version, and I ended up picking it out from curiosity.

Granted, I procrastinated on that too. It took me a month after picking the DVD out at the library before I got myself together and actually ended up watching the movie, which was something that took some extraordinary effort.

Getting through it was an effort, too, and my initial thought before we dig deep into this movie is that it should have remained just a play. It relies on the actor’s strength performance wise that’s demanding of the stage, not a movie. Fraser is great in it, don’t get me wrong. But it didn’t come across to me as a great movie. It’s too theatrical.

Let’s get into the review then, shall we?

Charlie, who’s dying from the health complications of being morbidly obese, just wants to reconnect with his daughter.

Our protagonist in The Whale is Charlie, who can barely get around his own apartment due to the sheer amount of weight he’s gained throughout the years. He works online as an instructor at a community college teaching English and writing, but when he logs on to teach the students, he has never revealed himself on-camera.

Every student except for him, as the teacher, has their camera on. Every so often his friend Liz, who is a nurse, comes to visit him, but this time she visits she realizes he’s starting to have heart failure and tells him he needs to go to a hospital. All these years, he has told her he could not afford medical care.

He’s also visited by a missionary, Thomas, who wants to convert him to the word of God. Liz clearly does not like that and tells him to stop coming.

But all Charlie wants to do is reconnect with his daughter, who he has not seen in eight years. Charlie left his wife and daughter when he realized he was gay, and that left a gaping wound inside of him. Ellie isn’t exactly a ray of sunshine, and she’s the embodiment of a moody teen.

She yells at him and treats him poorly, telling him to walk to her when she can clearly see he’s barely able to get up off of the couch. The only way Charlie gets her to agree to visit him more is this: he tells her he’ll give her everything in his bank account, which accounts for $120,000.

So they continue to see each other, despite their sessions not being the most pleasant ones in the world. One of the conditions is that Charlie must do her homework, so he does that.

One time Thomas shows up and Ellie talks to him, showing that she’s quite anti-religion, but she’s not as vehement towards Thomas as Liz is. At one point, when Thomas shows up and talks to Charlie, helping him pick up a key he lost, Liz drops a bombshell.

Her brother was excommunicated by the church and their father because of his relationship, which was with Charlie, and ended up killing himself because of it.

That’s why Charlie is the way he is. He started binge eating after his love’s death, and he continued to gain weight. In a way, he kind of lost the will to live because he doesn’t really associate with anyone except Liz and refuses any kind of medical treatment.

The next big event is Ellie puts sleeping pills in Charlie’s drink and food, and when Thomas comes over, they smoke weed. Ellie records Thomas confessing his sins and regrets for stealing, then sends it to his friends and loved ones back home affected by his behavior.

Liz then stages an intervention and brings Charlie’s ex-wife and Ellie over to talk about how he’s dying. This leads to a massive argument between all of them, and Liz storms out when she realizes Charlie had the money for treatment and just never used it.

He says it was always for Ellie, but she doesn’t believe it and leaves. Then Ellie ends up leaving, and the fight continues between him and the ex-wife. The final straw for the evening is when the pizza boy sees Charlie and looks horrified because he’s so overweight.

Charlie binge eats everything in a disturbing scene, then sends an email cussing to his students. He’s fired, and in their final class, he praises their authentic essays he requested and shows himself on-camera.

There are looks of disgust, which are so sad, then he throws his computer at the wall. Liz comes back and apologizes as his health gets worse. Then Thomas comes and preaches god and forgiveness, but when he brings up how being gay is a sin, Charlie kicks him out.

Ellie gets mad when she finds out Charlie swapped out an essay with another one of hers for an a assignment, but he replies it was the most honest thing she ever wrote.

They have a hug and emotional moment, and then Charlie presumably dies, as he’s surrounded by light.

Overall Thoughts

It’s a well-acted movie and an scenario could work in film, but I didn’t find this compelling as a film. Like I said earlier, it was too theatric and was blocked/paced like a theatre show for me.

I watch a ton of theatre so I could spot these recurring theatre elements throughout, but it simply couldn’t catch my attention. Fraser deserved his Oscar, that’s for sure, but it’s a hard sell of a film for people who need a bit more substance outside of the emotional hooks meant to lure you in.

I think it had major potential, but simply fell flat for me. I’m sure other people enjoyed it though; opinions are subjective.

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