The Whale – Film Review

A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

The Whale by Darren Aronofsky is one of those films that makes you feel as if you had to hold your breath the entire time, only to let out a huge exhale in the end, and I mean that in the greatest way possible. It’s a relentlessly gloomy movie that will leave you in a state of emotional chaos and make you reevaluate your life. It’s extremely amazing when a movie comes along that manages to evoke such powerful emotions because hardly many movies these days can achieve that.

The living room of our main character Charlie serves as the primary location for the majority of this movie. He is so morbidly obese that he can do almost everything in this one chair, including instructing online courses, consuming meals, and watching television. The way his life looks to be so sad makes it difficult to look at it.

Charlie is a man who has almost fully given up on life, and all it takes is one good look into his eyes to see that. He needs to go to the hospital or else he will die due to his weight, Liz (Hong Chau), his nurse and only true friend, warns him when she stops by to check on him.

She eventually allows Charlie to eat some fried chicken despite the fact that she finds it difficult to persuade him to go obtain assistance. As the story goes on, Charlie’s condition deteriorates, and it is painful to see how his life continues to spiral out of control.

Charlie’s adolescent daughter Ellie, who coincidentally has no interest in him, is the only thing he genuinely cares about in his life. It turns out that when Ellie was just eight years old, Charlie fled from his life with her and his wife Mary. Ellie is scarred as a result of this, and she now despises her father.

Charlie is obviously immensely sorry and remorseful, but no matter what he does or says, Ellie will never forgive him. Nonetheless, Charlie is determined to remain close to her before he passes away. The two characters’ bond in The Whale is absolutely heartbreaking. You’ll be rooting for these two to be back together throughout the entire movie, despite how difficult things become.

The performances here add to the overall difficulty of the piece in a positive way. As Charlie, Brendan Fraser offers arguably his best performance of his career. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t win the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for this subtle and heartbreaking performance.

Sadie Sink, who plays his daughter Ellie, is also fantastic in this. She obviously has a lot going on in her life, and Sink is no stranger to playing troubled adolescent characters in media (check out her portrayal of Max Mayfield in Netflix’s Stranger Things). Sink is one of the greatest actresses working today and excels in this role.

The movie occasionally feels a little bit too long, and the finale is a little bit abrupt, but altogether, this is a movie I won’t soon forget. Nonetheless, if you do choose to see it, I caution you to be prepared with some tissues.

Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink both give outstanding performances in the psychological thriller The Whale, which is a heartbreakingly tragic psychological drama rife with raw emotion.