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movie review on the whale

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"The Whale" is an abhorrent film, but it also features excellent performances.

It gawks at the grotesquerie of its central figure beneath the guise of sentimentality, but it also offers sharp exchanges between its characters that ring with bracing honesty.

It's the kind of film you should probably see if only to have an informed, thoughtful discussion about it, but it's also one you probably won't want to watch.

This aligns it with Darren Aronofsky's movies in general, which can often be a challenging sit. The director is notorious for putting his actors (and his audiences) through the wringer, whether it's Jennifer Connolly's drug addict in " Requiem for a Dream ," Mickey Rourke's aging athlete in " The Wrestler ," Natalie Portman's obsessed ballerina in " Black Swan ," or Jennifer Lawrence's besieged wife in "mother!" (For the record, I'm a fan of Aronofsky's work in general.)

But the difference between those films and "The Whale" is their intent, whether it's the splendor of their artistry or the thrill of their provocation. There's a verve to those movies, an unpredictability, an undeniable daring, and a virtuoso style. They feature images you've likely never seen before or since, but they'll undoubtedly stay with you afterward.

"The Whale" may initially feel gentler, but its main point seems to be sticking the camera in front of Brendan Fraser , encased in a fat suit that makes him appear to weigh 600 pounds, and asking us to wallow in his deterioration. In theory, we are meant to pity him or at least find sympathy for his physical and psychological plight by the film's conclusion. But in reality, the overall vibe is one of morbid fascination for this mountain of a man. Here he is, knocking over an end table as he struggles to get up from the couch; there he is, cramming candy bars in his mouth as he Googles "congestive heart failure." We can tsk-tsk all we like between our mouthfuls of popcorn and Junior Mints while watching Fraser's Charlie gobble greasy fried chicken straight from the bucket or inhale a giant meatball sub with such alacrity that he nearly chokes to death. The message "The Whale" sends us home with seems to be: Thank God that's not us.

In working from Samuel D. Hunter's script, based on Hunter's stage play, Aronofsky doesn't appear to be as interested in understanding these impulses and indulgences as much as pointing and staring at them. His depiction of Charlie's isolation within his squalid Idaho apartment includes a scene of him masturbating to gay porn with such gusto that he almost has a heart attack, a moment made of equal parts shock value and shame. But then, in a jarring shift, the tone eventually turns maudlin with Charlie's increasing martyrdom.

Within the extremes of this approach, Fraser brings more warmth and humanity to the role than he's afforded on the page. We hear his voice first; Charlie is a college writing professor who teaches his students online from behind the safety of a black square. And it's such a welcoming and resonant sound, full of decency and humor. Fraser's been away for a while, but his contradictions have always made him an engaging screen presence—the contrast of his imposing physique and playful spirit. He does so much with his eyes here to give us a glimpse into Charlie's sweet but tortured soul, and the subtlety he's able to convey goes a long way toward making "The Whale" tolerable.

But he's also saddled with a screenplay that spells out every emotion in ways that are so clunky as to be groan-inducing. At Charlie's most desperate, panicky moments, he soothes himself by reading or reciting a student's beloved essay on Moby Dick , which—in part—gives the film its title and will take on increasing significance. He describes the elusive white whale of Herman Melville's novel as he stands up, shirtless, and lumbers across the living room, down the hall, and toward the bedroom with a walker. At this moment, you're meant to marvel at the elaborate makeup and prosthetic work on display; you're more likely to roll your eyes at the writing.

"He thinks his life will be better if he can just kill this whale, but in reality, it won't help him at all," he intones in a painfully obvious bit of symbolism. "This book made me think about my own life," he adds as if we couldn't figure that out for ourselves.

A few visitors interrupt the loneliness of his days, chiefly Hong Chau as his nurse and longtime friend, Liz. She's deeply caring but also no-nonsense, providing a crucial spark to these otherwise dour proceedings. Aronofsky's longtime cinematographer, the brilliant Matthew Libatique , has lit Charlie's apartment in such a relentlessly dark and dim fashion to signify his sorrow that it's oppressive. Once you realize the entirety of the film will take place within these cramped confines, it sends a shiver of dread. And the choice to tell this story in the boxy, 1.33 aspect ratio further heightens its sense of dour claustrophobia.

But then "Stranger Things" star Sadie Sink arrives as Charlie's rebellious, estranged daughter, Ellie; her mom was married to Charlie before he came out as a gay man. While their first meeting in many years is laden with exposition about the pain and awkwardness of their time apart, the two eventually settle into an interesting, prickly rapport. Sink brings immediacy and accessibility to the role of the sullen but bright teenager, and her presence, like Chau's, improves "The Whale" considerably. Her casting is also spot-on in her resemblance to Fraser, especially in her expressive eyes.

The arrival of yet another visitor—an earnest, insistent church missionary played by Ty Simpkins —feels like a total contrivance, however. Allowing him inside the apartment repeatedly makes zero sense, even within the context that Charlie believes he's dying and wants to make amends. He even says to this sweet young man: "I'm not interested in being saved." And yet, the exchanges between Sink and Simpkins provide some much-needed life and emotional truth. The subplot about their unlikely friendship feels like something from a totally different movie and a much more interesting one.

Instead, Aronofsky insists on veering between cruelty and melodrama, with Fraser stuck in the middle, a curiosity on display.

Now playing in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Whale movie poster

The Whale (2022)

Rated R for language, some drug use and sexual content.

117 minutes

Brendan Fraser as Charlie

Sadie Sink as Ellie

Hong Chau as Liz

Ty Simpkins as Thomas

Samantha Morton as Mary

Sathya Sridharan as Dan

  • Darren Aronofsky

Writer (based on the play by)

  • Samuel D. Hunter

Cinematographer

  • Matthew Libatique
  • Andrew Weisblum
  • Rob Simonsen

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‘The Whale’ Review: Body Issues

Brendan Fraser plays an obese writing instructor reckoning with grief and regret in Darren Aronofsky’s latest film.

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In a scene from the film, Brendan Fraser is seen from the shoulders up, wearing prosthetic makeup to portray the obese character Charlie.

By A.O. Scott

Charlie is a college writing instructor who never leaves his apartment. He conducts his classes online, disabling his laptop camera so the students can’t see him. The movie camera, guided by Darren Aronofsky and his go-to cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, also stays indoors most of the time. Occasionally you get an exterior view of the drab low-rise building where Charlie lives, or a breath of fresh air on the landing outside his front door. But these respites only emphasize a pervasive sense of confinement.

Based on a play by Samuel D. Hunter (who wrote the script), “The Whale” is an exercise in claustrophobia. Rather than open up a stage-bound text, as a less confident film director might, Aronofsky intensifies the stasis, the calamitous sense of stuckness that defines Charlie’s existence. Charlie is trapped — in his rooms, in a life that has run off the rails, and above all in his own body. He was always a big guy, he says, but after the suicide of his lover, his eating “just got out of control.” Now his blood pressure is spiking, his heart is failing, and the simple physical exertions of standing up and sitting down require enormous effort and mechanical assistance.

Charlie’s size is the movie’s governing symbol and principal special effect. Encased in prosthetic flesh, Brendan Fraser, who plays Charlie, gives a performance that is sometimes disarmingly graceful. He uses his voice and his big, sad eyes to convey a delicacy at odds with the character’s corporeal grossness. But nearly everything about Charlie — the sound of his breathing, the way he eats, moves and perspires — underlines his abjection, to an extent that starts to feel cruel and voyeuristic.

“The Whale” unfolds over the course of a week, during which Charlie receives a series of visits: from his friend and informal caretaker, Liz (Hong Chau); from Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a young missionary who wants to save his soul; from his estranged teenage daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), and embittered ex-wife, Mary (Samantha Morton). There is also a pizza delivery guy (Sathya Sridharan), and a bird that occasionally shows up outside Charlie’s window. I’m not an ornithologist, but my guidebook identifies it as a Common Western Metaphor.

Speaking of which, Charlie is not the only whale in “The Whale.” His most prized possession is a student paper on “Moby-Dick,” the authorship of which is revealed at the movie’s end. It’s a fine piece of naïve literary criticism — maybe the best writing in the movie — about how Ishmael’s troubles compelled the author to think about “my own life.”

Perhaps Charlie’s troubles are meant to have the same effect. He becomes the nodal point in a web of trauma and regret, variously the agent, victim and witness of someone else’s unhappiness. He left Mary when he fell in love with a male student, Alan, who was Liz’s brother and had been raised in the church that Thomas represents. Mary, a heavy drinker, has kept Charlie away from Ellie, who has grown into a seething adolescent.

All this drama bursts out in freshets of stagy verbiage and blubbering. The script overwhelms narrative logic while demanding extra credit for emotional honesty. But the working out of the various issues involves a lot of blame-shifting and ethical evasion. Everyone and no one is responsible; actions do and don’t have consequences. Real-world topics like sexuality, addiction and religious intolerance float around untethered to any credible sense of social reality. The moral that bubbles up through the shouting (and the strenuous nerve-pumping of Robert Simonsen’s score) is that people are incapable of not caring about one another.

Maybe? Herman Melville and Walt Whitman provide some literary ballast for this idea, but as an exploration of — and argument for — the power of human sympathy, “The Whale” is undone by simplistic psychologizing and intellectual fuzziness.

Aronofsky has a tendency to misjudge his own strengths as a filmmaker. He is a brilliant manipulator of moods and a formidable director of actors, specializing in characters fighting their way through anguish and delusion toward something like transcendence. Mickey Rourke did that in “The Wrestler,” Natalie Portman in “Black Swan,” Russell Crowe in “Noah” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Mother!” Fraser makes a bid to join their company — Chau is also excellent — but “The Whale,” like some of Aronofsky’s other projects, is swamped by its grand and vague ambitions. It’s overwrought and also strangely insubstantial.

The Whale Rated R for abjection. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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The Whale Reviews

movie review on the whale

Fraser keeps Charlie’s fully formed humanity at the forefront of The Whale, despite various filmmaking decisions that could flatten his character into a saccharine pity case.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2024

movie review on the whale

It’s Aronofsky’s most blunt and uninspired work yet— an indulgent and strident slice of misery porn that rides a wave of unearned emotion to its underwhelming conclusion.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

If I were to describe this film in one word, it would be melancholy; it is practically flawless, at least in my opinion, and conveys the notion that people are inherently kind...

Full Review | Sep 23, 2023

If you didn’t know that The Whale was based on a play, you’d work it out pretty quickly... The immediate distance that this initially creates soon evaporates, however, in no small part thanks to Fraser’s all-in performance.

Full Review | Sep 21, 2023

movie review on the whale

If it’s as sincere as it purports to be, this is one of the worst movies of recent years, and if it’s not — which is almost preferable — then it’s a landmark exercise in trolling.

Full Review | Aug 25, 2023

movie review on the whale

A morbidly obese man racked with self-loathing makes a desperate eleventh-hour attempt to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter in the overstuffed but worthwhile drama, The Whale.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

movie review on the whale

Earns its place in the "most tearful films of the year" list as it moves slowly yet efficiently towards its overwhelmingly emotional ending, especially elevated by the most subtly powerful & irrefutably moving performance of Brendan Fraser's career.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 25, 2023

movie review on the whale

A riveting character study of one broken man that transcends compassion, love, pain/regret. A masterpiece Sadie Sink/Hong Chau should be nominated & Brendan Fraser might have turned in one of the best performances of all time

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

movie review on the whale

I just wished that the film overall was as strong as Brendan Fraser’s acting comeback.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 22, 2023

movie review on the whale

Charlie [is] played brilliantly by Brendan Fraser...

Full Review | Jun 2, 2023

movie review on the whale

It has a more or less decent preamble that is propelled by an organic performance from Brendan Fraser on his return, but its psychological marrow is locked into a basic routine of trivial conversations and a lack of substance. [Full reveiw in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Apr 19, 2023

A strangely hopeful story that manages to stay on the surface even as it seems to sink into mediocrity. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 29, 2023

One of the most deplorable elements of The Whale is its near celebration of defeat and resignation. The decision by Charlie to eat himself to death is treated as a meaningful act of self-sacrifice. Why would this possibly be so?

Full Review | Mar 24, 2023

movie review on the whale

All the weight of the story (metaphorically and literally) is carried by its tragic protagonist — the ailing Charlie, whom Brendan Fraser portrays with such depth, nuance, and wit. Nothing in the film's text matches this commitment, and that's a problem.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2023

movie review on the whale

Two words - Brendan Fraser. He was born to play Charlie and his Oscar award is extremely well deserved.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 21, 2023

Chamber settings, by their nature, let the acting echo out and Fraser’s central performance speaks volumes about his character’s history.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 17, 2023

movie review on the whale

Though The Whale has captured the interest of the public, I can’t say that it’s earned. I hated this movie, but not for the reasons you may think.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 17, 2023

Aronofsky’s film of this joyless play was a hit, so I guess it touched something in the moviegoing public. It had to use a bodega claw to do it because it couldn’t get off the couch, but it touched them.

Full Review | Mar 16, 2023

movie review on the whale

Aronofsky uses The Whale for easy, unsightly, virtue-signaling.

Full Review | Mar 15, 2023

movie review on the whale

At times, it feels like they had a list of difficult themes they wanted to include, which makes for an uneven experience. But we also can't deny the power of Fraser's performance, which some would argue is superior to the film. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 15, 2023

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Brendan Fraser Deserves an Oscar for ‘The Whale.’ He Also Deserves a Better Movie

By David Fear

Charlie is 600 lbs. This is the first thing you notice about him; this is the first thing you are meant to notice about him. He’s always been a big guy, he says, but he “let it get out of control.” On the Zooms in which Charlie teaches online English courses — he’s a professor — his voice is always emanating from a solid square of black, the video permanently disabled, the word “Instructor” the only visual his students associate with him.

But when we first see Charlie in The Whale , director Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s award-winning 2012 play, we get to observe all of him: a bulk of a man, his body bloated and swollen, sitting deep in the corner of his couch, masturbating furiously to online porn. Severe chest pains interrupt his endeavor. Only the arrival of a random stranger, who happens to find the apartment door unlocked, saves his life.

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Fraser is a dream collaborator in that respect, and yet The Whale seems hellbent on making you view Charlie as a grotesque. There’s something monstrous about the way it keeps framing him, how it seems to almost fetishize every roll of his flesh and put the sound of his greasy chomping on fried chicken so high in the sound mix. What this man is experiencing — a horrible sense of shame that’s metastasized into self-destruction — is not pretty. But the movie seems to revel a little too enthusiastically in its own ugliness. That doom-laden score by Rob Simonsen keeps rubbing the despair even deeper into your face. For every sunbeam of humanity Fraser lets shine through this soul, the film summons a half-dozen dark clouds to try and dampen it.

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A fat-suited Brendan Fraser in The Whale.

The Whale review – Brendan Fraser is remarkable in knotty drama of self-destruction

The Oscar-nominated star plays a chronically obese man in Darren Aronofsky’s clammy, uncomfortable but ultimately redeeming movie

I t’s a slippery thing, the latest film from Darren Aronofsky. And not just because of the air of general clamminess that pervades this claustrophobic theatre adaptation (although if it were possible for a camera lens to sweat, then cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s would probably do so throughout). More, it’s due to the effortlessly duplicitous way the director pushes and pulls the audience of this story of grief and self-destruction, starring a fat-suited Brendan Fraser as Charlie, a chronically obese shut-in who is belatedly trying to rebuild his relationship with his estranged daughter.

Aronofsky challenges us to see beyond our biases and pre-programmed ideas of attractiveness to find beauty in Charlie, in the warm, enveloping melody of his speaking voice, in his poetic, passionate soul. But at the same time he shoots Charlie in a way that accentuates the indignity of his mostly sofa-based existence. The camera is positioned low as Charlie heaves himself to his feet, reducing this complex, wounded character to little more than a cascade of flesh. Then there’s the airless, slightly unsavoury lighting and colour palette of Charlie’s living space, which looks like it was shot from the inside of a particularly fetid laundry basket. The film sets out to repulse us, and it frequently succeeds. It would be easy, and tempting, to dismiss it out of hand.

But that would be to disregard its redeeming strength – the authentically knotty characters and the performances that inhabit them. And not just the recently Oscar-nominated Fraser, although he is remarkable, his personal magnetism working overtime. Also superb is Hong Chau, as Liz, Charlie’s friend and carer, and, in a blistering cameo as Charlie’s ex-wife, the always formidable Samantha Morton.

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‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser Is Sly and Moving as a Morbidly Obese Man, but Darren Aronofsky’s Film Is Hampered by Its Contrivances

The director seamlessly adapts Samuel D. Hunter's play but can't transcend the play's problems.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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The Whale Movie

He plays Charlie, a man of many hundreds of pounds who sits all day long in his shabby dank apartment in a small town in Idaho. Fraser has been outfitted with a digital fat suit (the effects that bulk him up are a blend of prosthetics and CGI), and the result is that we see someone who looks at home in his flesh. The sloping jowls that consume his neck, the big wide back and gigantic jelly belly that spills down over his crotch, the arms and legs that are like meat slabs — Charlie is a mountain of a man, but he’s all of a piece. Fraser, with sweaty thinning hair plastered on his scalp, resembles an overstuffed Rodney Dangerfield. The actor sinks himself into that body, so that even as we’re gawking at a fellow the size of Jabba the Hutt we register the familiar soulful look in the eye, the distended remnants of the Fraser handsomeness.

When we first see Charlie, he’s frantically masturbating to a porn video. Once that’s over, it seems, for a while, like he literally can’t lift himself out of his armchair. With great effort, however, he finally does, using a walker to skulk around the apartment. Since Charlie is mostly a sedentary lump, you might expect him to have a lumpish personality too. But Fraser doesn’t play him with a heavy, glum, downbeat vibe. He’s gentle and spry, with a quick temperament — you might even say there’s something light about him — and this allows us, from the start, to see the man buried in the fat.

In case there is any doubt he needs saving, “The Whale” quickly establishes that he’s an addict living a life of isolated misery and self-disgust, scarfing away his despair (at various points we see him going at a bucket of fried chicken, a drawer full of candy, and voluminous take-out pizzas from Gambino’s, all of which is rather sad to behold). Charlie teaches an expository writing seminar at an online college, doing it on Zoom, which looks very today (though the film, for no good reason, is set during the presidential primary season of 2016), with video images of the students surrounding a small black square at the center of the screen. That’s where Charlie should be; he tells the students his laptop camera isn’t working, which is his way of hiding his body and the shame he feels about it. But he’s a canny teacher who knows what good writing is, even if his lessons about structure and topic sentences fall on apathetic ears.

Charlie has a friend of sorts, Liz (Hong Chau), who happens to be a nurse, and when she comes over and learns that his blood pressure is in the 240/130 range, she declares it an emergency situation. He has congestive heart failure; with that kind of blood pressure, he’ll be dead in a week. But Charlie refuses to go the hospital, and will continue to do so. He’s got a handy excuse. With no health insurance, if he seeks medical care he’ll run up tens of thousands of dollars in bills. As Liz points out, it’s better to be in debt than dead. But Charlie’s resistance to healing himself bespeaks a deeper crisis. He doesn’t want help. If he dies (and that’s the film’s basic suspense), it will essentially be a suicide.

It’s hard not to notice that Liz, given how much she’s taking care of Charlie, has a spiky and rather abrasive personality. We think: Okay, that’s who she is. But a couple of other characters enter the movie — and when Ellie (Sadie Sink), Charlie’s 17-year-old daughter, shows up, we notice that she has a really spiky and abrasive personality. Does Charlie just happen to be surrounded by hellcats and cranks? Or is there something in Hunter’s dialogue that is simply, reflexively over-the-top in its theatrical hostility?

Charlie and Ellie are estranged, and as the film colors in their relationship, we begin to put together the puzzle of how Charlie got to be the morbidly obese wreck he is. It seems that eight years ago, he left Ellie and her mother when he fell in love with one of his students, a man named Andy. Andy became the love of Charlie’s life, so he left the life he had behind. Ellie is still in a rage about it.

“The Whale,” while it has a captivating character at its center, turns out to be equal parts sincerity and hokum. The movie carries us along, tethering the audience to Fraser’s intensely lived-in and touching performance, yet the more it goes on the more its drama is interlaced with nagging contrivances, like the whole issue of why this father and daughter were ever so separated from each other. We learn that after Charlie and Ellie’s mother, Mary (Samantha Morton), were divorced, Mary got full custody and cut Charlie off from Ellie. But they never stopped living in the same small town, and even single parents who don’t have custody are legally entitled to see their children. Charlie, we’re told, was eager to have kids; he lived with Ellie and her mother until the girl was eight. So why would he have just … let her go?

There’s one other major character, a lost young missionary for the New Life Church named Thomas, and though Ty Simpkins plays him appealingly, the way this cult-like church plays into the movie feels like one hard-to-swallow conceit too many. This matters a lot, because if we can’t totally buy what’s happening, we won’t be as moved by Charlie’s road to redemption. Near the end, there’s a very moving moment. It’s when Charlie is discussing the essay on “Moby Dick” he’s been reading pieces of throughout the film, and we learn where the essay comes from and why it means so much to him. If only the rest of the movie were that convincing! But most of “The Whale” simply isn’t as good as Brendan Fraser’s performance. For what he brings off, though, it deserves to be seen.     

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival, Sept. 4, 2022. Running time: 117 MIN.

  • Production: An A24 release of a Protozoa Pictures production. Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Jeremy Dawson, Art Handel. Executive producers: Scott Franklin, Tyson Bidner.
  • Crew: Director: Darren Aronofsky. Screenplay: Samuel D. Hunter. Camera: Matthew Libatique. Editor: Andrew Weisblum. Music: Rob Simonsen.
  • With: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Sathya Sridharan.

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‘the whale’ review: brendan fraser is heart-wrenching in darren aronofsky’s portrait of regret and deliverance.

Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton also appear in this chamber drama adapted by Samuel D. Hunter from his play about grief and salvation.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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With its airless single setting and main character whose dire health crisis makes the ticking clock on his life apparent from the start, The Whale seemed a tricky prospect for screen transfer. Aronofsky succeeds not by artificially opening up the piece but by leaning into its theatricality, immersing us in the claustrophobia that has become inescapable for Fraser’s character, Charlie. The scene structure of a focal character confined to a few rooms while secondary characters come and go, at times overlapping, remains very much that of a play.

Shooting in the snug 1.33 aspect ratio might seem to box us in even more, and the shortage of light seeping in from outside Charlie’s apartment is perhaps a tad symbolically heavy-handed. But DP Matthew Libatique’s spry camera and Andrew Weisblum’s dynamic editing bring surprising movement to the static situation. The one significant questionable choice is the overkill of Rob Simonsen’s emotionally emphatic score, rather than trusting the actors to do that work.

Aronofsky and Hunter startle the audience early on, not just by exposing Charlie’s severe obesity — Fraser wears a mix of latex suit plus digital prosthetics designed by Adrien Morot — but by revealing this mountain of a man to be still capable of sexual desire. Charlie keeps the camera off during the online writing course he teaches, claiming that the webcam on his laptop is broken. But its video component functions just fine when moments later he’s watching gay porn and furiously masturbating.

Charlie’s crisis is averted by the arrival of his health care worker friend Liz ( Hong Chau , wonderful), who is used to dealing with his emergencies. She tells him his congestive heart failure and sky-high blood pressure mean he’ll likely be dead within a week. Exasperated at his continuing refusal to go to a hospital, ostensibly due to lack of health insurance, Liz is often impatient and angry with Charlie. But her love for him is such that she reluctantly indulges his fast-food addiction, bringing him buckets of fried chicken and meatball subs.

Grief is the ailment that unites Charlie and sharp-tongued Liz, also making her ferocious with the persistently present Thomas. Her adoptive father is a senior council member at New Life, and she blames the death of her brother Alan on the church. Alan was a former student of Charlie’s who became the love of his life but could never get over his father’s condemnation, developing a chronic eating disorder that eventually killed him.

The tidy symmetry of one partner starving himself to death and the other’s self-destruction happening through gluttony is a little schematic, just as the Moby Dick elements are a literary flourish that shows the writer’s hand. But Hunter’s script and the intimacy of the actors’ work keep the melancholy drama grounded and credible.

The teenager’s spiky confrontations with her gentle giant of a father are matched by her needling exchanges with Thomas, whom she manipulates the same way she does Charlie and her hard-bitten mother. Sink (a Stranger Things regular) doesn’t hold back in a characterization that justifies Mary’s description of her as “evil.” But the residual love beneath both women’s screechy outbursts and hurt distance is slowly revealed in some genuinely moving moments, notably as Charlie reminisces with Mary about a family trip to Oregon when he was much less heavy, the last time he went swimming.

Every member of the small ensemble makes an impression, even the mostly unseen Sathya Sridharan as a friendly pizza delivery guy who never fails to ask about Charlie’s welfare from behind the closed apartment door.

The standout, alongside Fraser, is Chau, following her slyly funny work in Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up with a nuanced turn as a woman knocked sideways by loss and bracing for another devastating hit of it. In both cases, her inability to intervene has left her helpless, enraged, exhausted and in visible pain. There’s also humor in Liz’s annoyance with Charlie’s innate positivity, which endures no matter how bad his circumstances become. In a movie that’s partly about the human instinct to care for other people, Chau breaks your heart.

His physicality, straining to navigate awkward spaces and maneuver a body that requires more strength than Charlie has left, is distressing to witness, as are his fits of coughing, choking, gasping for breath. On the few occasions where he struggles to stand to his full height, he fills the frame, a figure of tremendous pathos less because of his size than his suffering. But in a film about salvation, it’s the inextinguishable humanity of Fraser’s performance that floors you.

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The Whale review: Brendan Fraser comeback is grossly manipulative to an effective degree

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Brendan Fraser to play obese 600lb recluse in new drama The Whale

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First seen masturbating as he watches online porn, Charlie ( Brendan Fraser ), the main character in The Whale , isn’t just morbidly obese; he is a lumbering leviathan of a man, so immensely fat that he can barely manoeuvre himself off his couch, let alone leave his apartment. He sweats profusely, vomits into dustbins and almost chokes on the junk food he gorges himself on. “Who would want me to be part of their life?” he asks plaintively toward the end of the film. Even his daughter calls him disgusting. Darren Aronofsky’s film is stagy and mawkish. Watching it you feel grossly manipulated, but the approach is undeniably effective.

Fraser was the star of films like The Mummy and George of the Jungle in the days when he was a more conventionally shaped leading man. Now, covered in layers of prosthetics, he gives one of those sad-eyed performances, like a dog with an injured paw begging for a bone, that many audiences will find very hard to resist. He’s already received an Oscar nod for Best Actor.

Charlie makes a living by giving online English literature tutorials. He lies to his students that the camera on his laptop is broken so he doesn’t have to reveal himself in his full grotesquerie. As the film progresses, we gradually discover why he has allowed himself to grow so monstrously out of shape. Just under a decade before, he walked out on his marriage, abandoning his then eight-year-old daughter to take up with a student called Alan with whom he had fallen in love. Alan is now dead. Charlie is eaten up with guilt. He is also suffering congestive heart failure which could kill him at any time.

The film is based on a play by Samuel D Hunter. Aronofsky does little to open up his source material for the screen; the entire story takes place in Charlie’s apartment. In its lighter moments, The Whale is disconcertingly reminiscent of American family sitcoms full of eccentric relatives and friends who bicker incessantly but love each other really . Various characters turn up at Charlie’s door. One regular visitor Liz, (Hong Chau), a sharp-tongued but affectionate woman who has a demanding job yet still tends to his medical needs and keeps him in food.

Also continually re-appearing is Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a hapless young missionary from a cult-like religious group, who wants to save the fat man’s soul. Then, most important to Charlie, there is his estranged daughter, Ellie ( Stranger Things ’ Sadie Sink), now 17 and in danger of flunking out of high school. She wants him to help her with her school essays but doesn’t hide her contempt for him. Her mother (Samantha Morton) doesn’t know she is there.

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Physical drama comes whenever Charlie tries to move a few steps across his apartment, or to go to the bathroom. The slightest exertion exhausts him. In spite of his decrepitude, he is a sweet natured and optimistic character with an engaging sense of humour. The title of the film refers not just to his shape, but to an essay written by a disgruntled kid, dissing Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick . He knows the essay by heart and regards it as his favourite piece of writing.

Aronofsky goes so far out of his way to portray Charlie in the early scenes as a repulsive bum that it’s inevitable the character’s better qualities will soon emerge. Fraser retains the genial qualities which made him so popular with audiences in mainstream 1990s movies. He demands honesty from his students but there’s nothing cynical about him.

The pathos is laid on very thick. At times, you wonder why a filmmaker as sophisticated as Aronofsky is resorting to such manipulative tactics. Beneath all its blubber, though, this turns out to be a film with a very big heart.

Dir: Darren Aronofsky. Starring: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton. 15, 117 mins.

‘The Whale’ is in cinemas from 3 February

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The Whale Review

A deeply emotional glimpse at a troubled man confronting his own white whale..

The Whale Review - IGN Image

The Whale releases in theaters on Dec. 9, 2022.

I’m fat. There’s no getting around that. So, unsurprisingly, The Whale – a story about an overweight man – had potential to be a deeply personal film for me. Writing about it, even more so. What I wasn’t expecting was just how personal.

The Whale tells the story of Charlie (Brendan Fraser) – a 600lb man with increasingly complex health issues and a life full of regret. I may not be 600lb but I can sure relate to that last part. Like I said, I’m fat. Much like Charlie, “I was always big, I just let it get out of control.” Charlie’s life spirals following the death of his partner. For me, it was after getting divorced. But the results were similar – comfort food quickly became a few pounds, a stone or two. Then you look back and wonder how the hell you got there.

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We don’t see that with Charlie – just the end result, his bloated, 600lb-frame a testament to the devastation his life has wrought upon him. Director Darren Aronofsky paints a grim portrait of poor Charlie. He’s a reclusive English teacher who’s cut himself off from the world. He’s so embarrassed by himself that he keeps his webcam switched off while delivering his college courses. I did exactly the same when I began studying one.

That’s why Fraser’s performance hits so hard for me – the sheer authenticity of it. I’ve been there, I get it. I know exactly what it’s like to give up on yourself. I notice the look in his eyes, the guilt when he reaches for another chocolate bar, the anger, and rage, and self-destruction on his face when he gorges himself on another binge. For me, it’s one of the most authentic performances I’ve ever seen on film.

Which is Darren Aronofsky’s best film to date?

It's a heavy and emotionally draining performance, too. Charlie is dying – a victim of his own eating, while he clings fanatically to an essay about Moby Dick every time he’s close to his last breath. But Charlie is more than just a fat, dying man. He’s a father, a friend, a grieving lover.

The complexity of Charlie is a testament to the incredible script by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the play on which the film is based. It’s deftly handled by both Aronofsky and Fraser, with a subtlety and grace you won’t expect from beneath a 600lb body mass. And that’s exactly the point.

There’s been some controversy over the decision to put Fraser in a body suit, given the fact that Charlie is portrayed as grotesquely, morbidly obese. But by exaggerating Charlie’s proportions, it allows Aronofsky to hit us even harder with an important truth: Charlie is as human as the rest of us. Much like Walt Whitman in his poem, Song of Myself, Fraser explodes the self, giving us a humane and harrowing glimpse into Charlie’s complex life that most will avoid looking for in the first place.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a fat person portrayed so honestly, and that unflinching authenticity – the good, the bad, the warts and all – makes The Whale important and hugely necessary. In fact, Charlie isn’t made out to be a victim – he’s done some questionable things, too. He’s merely human. Aronofsky gets that point across with poetic beauty.

Charlie’s physical appearance is designed to shock, with some astonishing makeup and prosthetics used to bring Fraser up to that 600lb body mass. There’s an element of sensationalism when you’re faced with Charlie’s naked, showering body, for instance. By exaggerating Charlie to grotesque proportions, it hits even harder when we begin to uncover the anguish that pushed him there.

If Fraser’s performance is at the heart of The Whale then Sadie Sink, who plays his daughter, Ellie, is the soul. The anger bubbling up inside her is a counterpoint to Fraser’s sadness – two ways of coping with tragedy that oppose and clash. Sink brings a phenomenal performance, too, overshadowed only by the brilliance of Fraser in what might be the defining role of his career. Their dynamic brought a tear to my eye more than once.

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Of course, she is Charlie’s white whale – repairing his relationship with her is all-consuming. It’s another element of his personality that comes to light through a mix of incredible performances and subtle direction… not to mention orchestral hits mimicking whale song in an eerie, emotional nod to the story of Moby Dick.

The utter brilliance of The Whale is this: it’s not just about Charlie. It’s about you. How you interact with the film – what you get from it – is what’s important. Aronofsky forces us to face our own prejudices in a subtle way, reassessing how we see Charlie at every step.

The Whale is truly one of the most emotional voyages you’ll take in a theater. A gut-wrenching, tear-jerking story is topped only by Fraser’s performance – a career-defining role that’s surely a contender for Oscars glory. Sink brings a staggeringly off-kilter performance as Ellie, while the whole thing is expertly guided by Aronofsky at the rudder. Hunter charts a course through unfamiliar waters, forcing us to face some uncomfortable truths. Fat people are people, too. Good or bad or everything in between. The Whale shows its 600lb protagonist with a humanity that has long been missing from Hollywood.

The Whale forces us to face some uncomfortable truths, not just concerning its grotesquely proportioned protagonist, but about ourselves, too. Much of its power comes from breaking down the barrier between the audience and the film’s subject, forcing us to accept that there’s a human being beneath the fat. A powerhouse performance from Brendan Fraser explores every facet of the deeply complex man, while Sadie Sink digs deep for a quirky role that keeps you guessing. A sharp script is delivered with slow brutality by Darren Aronofsky who gets to the heart of what it means to be Charlie. The Whale isn’t just a great film – it’s an important one, too, delving into our own humanity with the dogged relentlessness of Ahab himself.

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The Whale review: 'Brendan Fraser deserves an Oscar'

The Whale (Credit: A24)

They're calling it "The Brenaissance". After years in the Hollywood wilderness, Brendan Fraser is getting parts in major films again - including DC's shot-but-shelved Batgirl movie - and his fans are hoping that this will lead to a career revival to compare to Matthew McConaughey's "McConaissance" a few years ago. The most important stepping-stone on Fraser's route back to the A-list is Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday. Why is it so important? For one thing, it's a high-profile drama from a big-name director. For another, Fraser has the lead role, and he appears in almost every scene. For a third, Fraser undergoes one of those has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed physical transformations that awards voters can't resist. It's a far cry from George of the Jungle. 

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Fraser plays Charlie, a gay Ohio literature professor who never leaves his dingy, cluttered apartment, and keeps his camera switched off during his Zoom lectures. The reason for this shyness is that he has been depressed since the suicide of his lover, several years ago, and he has kept eating to the point where he is morbidly obese. Indeed, he is so heavy now that his heart is failing, and he may well die within days. His loyal, loving carer, Liz (the excellent Hong Chau) urges him to go to hospital, and a gauche missionary (Ty Simpkins) from a local evangelical church is determined to save his soul. But all Charlie cares about is talking to Ellie (Sadie Sink), the 17-year-old daughter he hasn't seen since he left her and her mother (Samantha Morton) eight years earlier.

Directed by: Darren Aronofsky Starring: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Samantha Morton Film length: 1h 57m

The Whale requires Fraser to wear the biggest "fat suit" since Terry Jones exploded in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. (One of Charlie's favourite books is Moby Dick, so the title isn't just a reference to his size.) It's rare to see prosthetic make-up on this scale outside of a body-horror movie, but it's so well done that the viewer comes to accept it within minutes. What's even more impressive is that, despite being encased in a mountain of rubber, Fraser is expressive enough to melt your heart. There's a remarkable nimbleness to his facial movements and a soulful gentleness to his voice, but it's his wide, pleading, hopeful blue eyes that make it hard to imagine anyone else being as captivating in the role.

It's not so hard to imagine a better film, though. The Whale is a kind of companion piece to the director's 2008 hit, The Wrestler (although, unusually for Aronofsky, he didn't write either of them), in that it involves a man with an estranged daughter, a heart condition, and a body he has pushed to painfully unhealthy extremes. It's worth remembering, too, that The Wrestler revived the career of its leading man, Mickey Rourke, if only briefly.

The Whale retains the pacing, structure and conventions of a solid but clichéd melodrama

The key difference between the two projects is that The Wrestler had so much grit and dynamism, whereas The Whale, which is adapted by Samuel D Hunter from his own play, never lets you forget its theatrical origins. That's not just because Aronofsky chooses to shoot it simply, on one unconvincing set. It's also because it retains the pacing, structure and conventions of a solid but clichéd melodrama. The staginess is there in the way that the characters take it in turns to visit Charlie and have polished, thematically relevant conversations with him, the way that so many people conveniently enter his life within a week-long time span, and the way that they conveniently reveal the hidden connections between them. 

For a film that opens with a 40-stone man suffering chest spasms after masturbating to online pornography, The Whale turns out to be disappointingly stodgy and sentimental. Charlie talks - and talks and talks - about the importance of honesty in writing, but much of this well-meaning redemption story is too corny to ring true - the cynical daughter, in particular. And when Fraser makes his impassioned, tearful speech towards the end, as the camera holds his face and syrupy strings drip all over the soundtrack, it is almost a parody of the clips that are shown at awards ceremonies when the nominations are read out.

Still, parodic or not, this sequence is definitely going to be used a lot in the months to come. Fraser richly deserves to be nominated for a best actor Oscar, and if that doesn't happen, I won't just eat my hat, I'll eat as many pizzas and cheese-and-meatball sandwiches as Charlie gets through in the film. The Brenaissance is here.

The Whale is released in the US on 9 December

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‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser’s Heartbreaking Performance Isn’t Matched by Overwrought Direction

Whatever 'the whale's many imperfections, brendan fraser's relentless display of craft and courage is a must see..

movie review on the whale

Some things cannot be denied, even at gunpoint. One of them is the power, awe and surprise inherent in Brendan Fraser’s genuine, realistic and heartbreaking performance in The Whale. The film isn’t equal to the standards he sets for himself in either Samuel D. Hunter’s phony, long-winded screenplay or Darren Aronofsky’s overwrought direction. That’s a shame because they both detract from the impact of the star’s center-ring passion and rob him of the applause he so richly deserves. I rarely care much for Aronofsky’s films because he doesn’t know the meaning of the word subtlety and his actors, who seem to adore him, suffer the consequences, and get unfairly blamed for his excesses in harmful ways. It happened to Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler, Hugh Jackman in The Fountain, Jennifer Lawrence in the abominable Mother! and everyone in Requiem for a Dream.

With luck and a considerable surfeit of skill, the same dismal fate might elude Brendan Fraser, but so many critics hate The Whale that the star has so far won zero accolades in the year-end awards sweepstakes. Prosthetics can be credited with some of the 600 pounds in this once svelte and sculpted actor’s onscreen weight gain, but viewers who believe his shocking transition is just another Hollywood gimmick are advised that in interviews he admits most of the weight incurred from emotional problems in his personal life is real. The camera does not lie and, determined to make a comeback, he is now obsessed with the task of overcoming actual obesity.  I wish him luck because I’d like to see him in more films.

Meanwhile, despite The Whale ‘s many imperfections, I urge you to see the transformation of Brendan Fraser. H e bravely plays Charlie, a gay professor who teaches creative writing online—weak, reclusive, manic-depressive, humongous and ashamed of what he’s done to his body after the death of his lover cost him his will to survive. After a heart attack incurred while masturbating and a diagnosis of congestive heart failure with a blood pressure of 238 over 134, he suddenly sees the writing on the wall and, fearing how it all will end, makes one last concerted effort to reunite with his resentful but caring ex-wife (Samantha Morton) and his long-estranged adolescent daughter (Sadie Sink), who only pretends to be interested in her father’s health after he promises to ghostwrite her school essays. This dubious pair, along with a long-suffering nurse (Hong Chau, also currently appearing onscreen as Ralph Fiennes’ homicidal maitre’d in The Menu) who wants Charlie hospitalized, and a young door-to-door evangelist (Ty Simpkins) are his only allies in this survival scenario, and the time they spend trying to cure him seems interminable.

The Whale has moments that touch the heart and passages that engage the mind, but the insufferable parallels it constantly draws between Charlie’s obesity and Moby Dick, Charlie’s favorite book, may have worked better in the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter than they do in his screen adaptation, where they merely ring false and drag the pace to a crawl. The rhythm (or lack of it) in Darren Aronofsky’s direction keeps slowing the movie down to a series of stops and starts. That pretty much leaves Brendan Fraser to make his own lemonade with more lemons than he can safely handle. Scenes abound with him wobbling around naked to the toilet and unable to get up from the seat, wolfing down candy bars and choking on buckets of fried chicken, followed by projectile vomiting that has nothing to do with acting. When I wasn’t  covering my eyes, I found myself listening to numbing dialogue about redemption that didn’t ring true. So I admire the effort and the relentless display of craft and courage that score high marks for Brendan Fraser in a film I’m glad I saw, but never want to see again.

Observer Reviews are regular assessments of new and noteworthy cinema.

‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser’s Heartbreaking Performance Isn’t Matched by Overwrought Direction

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movie review on the whale

‘The Whale’ Review: May the “Brenaissance” Continue Beyond Darren Aronofsky's Film

'The Whale' does not engage outside of the known narrative of the actor in the film — it’s Brendan Fraser's comeback!

This review was originally part of our 2022 Venice Film Festival coverage .

Brendan Fraser was one of the biggest movie stars for a solid decade. His disappearance was sudden, but it perhaps didn’t register because he was a different type of movie star. He was likable. There was no method acting, bad boy drama. And the movies that made him famous were easily likable, too, without being arthouse favorites. Attentions drift to headline makers and new thunderbolts who balanced complicated fare with blockbusters.

The Whale is Fraser’s first leading role in a theatrical movie in a decade. It’s directed by Darren Aronofsky and has been placed at various film festivals by the biggest indie label of modern times, A24. That’s what the business likes to call a comeback vehicle. And Oscar? They love a comeback story. And Fraser’s comeback doesn’t come from working back through addiction or bad behavior on set it comes from self-care after a retreat inward. The Whale is ultimately about trying to provide the tools of self-care to someone else. People can’t be saved by others. They must save themselves, but they can be helped by others. Therein lies part of the problem of The Whale , the main character is not a vessel for his own journey but for a secondary character, and, by extension, the audience.

Fraser plays Charlie, an English teacher living with extreme obesity. He conducts online lectures with his camera off. He has a set routine, which includes regular visits from his caretaker, who has ties to his past ( Hong Chau ), and Dan, the pizza delivery guy who follows the regular instructions of delivery — leave on the ledge, money is in the mailbox. His routine is disturbed by two young people. An unwanted visitor and a desired visitor. The first is a missionary ( Ty Simpkins ) who knocks on the door the moment that Charlie is close to suffering a heart attack while masturbating to pornography. The young New Lifer decides it’s his mission to check in regularly on the state of Charlie’s soul—before his inevitable death. The other is Charlie’s estranged daughter ( Sadie Sink ), whom he hasn’t seen in eight years and hopes to reconnect with before his inevitable death.

The-Whale

RELATED: Brendan Fraser Explains How 'The Whale' Impacted His Priorities When Choosing New Projects

The estranged daughter story, of course, sounds very similar to Aronofsky’s The Wrestler . And though that tangent of The Wrestler is the weakest angle in that film it does expose who The Wrestler works better than The Whale . The Wrestler had a world to explore. There, it was professional wrestling many rungs down from what’s on television; local fare, low paying, with codes to protect each other but serious bodily harm is a constant threat.

The Whale not only has no outside world and, being contained to one setting, all the characters arrive to make declarations. Single-setting films can definitely feel cinematic and bigger than the location due to well-written characters. But the characters in The Whale only speak direct wants, needs, and desires every moment they are on screen. It does not feel organic or real.

The best moment is when Sink’s mother arrives, questioning the contact that was made because she has full custody (Charlie left the family because he was in love with a man; though blissful for a time, it ended in tragedy). It’s a single scene between Samantha Morton and Fraser. It’s the best scene in the movie because it’s the least predictable. There’s time to reflect, to pause in a doorway to make an offering. And the area to explode through years of shared shattered expectations. Morton, too, was more of a mainstay in the early 2000s and has faded into lesser roles. Fraser’s best emotional acting is opposite her. There’s a flicker of a long faded connection. Outside of this scene, it’s primarily a parade of battling testimonies from the two younger characters, with Chau there to calm down an overbearing musical score.

the-whale-sadie-sink

Aronofsky, too, does seem to amplify Fraser’s manipulated body with some questionable shots. Not quite body-shaming or disgust, but they do have a carnival quality of step right up, folks! See the Whale!! (Reminder: the character is physically introduced through masturbation which signals the desire to shock with his body, right from the get, something opposite of the tear-drenched ending and partially why the ending doesn’t feel earned to me). This could be due to the single-location setting, with the only place for Aronofsky to provide visual flair, but it runs counter to an attempt at empathy. Instead, it feels like gawking.

The Whale did not move me because most of the character interactions announced themselves loudly and with increasing frequency. It is inorganic, gimmicky, manipulative, and its lessons are simplistic. As a character, Charlie remains mostly a body. He has a kindness to him, but this role is mostly to react to the wants and needs of others. The Whale does not engage outside of the known narrative of the actor in the film — it’s his comeback! Despite what the Internet might be broadcasting, it is possible to be happy for a Brendan Fraser “Brenaissance” and still think this is closed-circuit claptrap.

The Whale is now playing in theaters.

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The ‘cathartic release’ of ‘The Whale’ explained by the play’s actors and directors

Four actors playing the obese main character in "The Whale" onstage

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The following contains spoilers from the movie “The Whale,” now playing in theaters.

The movie version of “The Whale” ends with a breath, a bright light and a beach. The last visual shows the sun shining, the tide rising and falling, and a younger, slimmer version of the lead character, Charlie, staring out into the ocean as his daughter plays in the sand behind him.

If the serene seaside scene confused you, you’re not alone: That final flashback was a surprise to playwright and screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter, as director Darren Aronofsky tacked it on without discussing it with him. But the ending’s overall effect echoes the final moment of its source material, which actors and directors who’ve staged the popular play consider to be a release that, when performed, feels communal and generally satisfying for the audience in the room.

“The way it’s structured, this play is designed to slowly and repeatedly turn up the pressure until it almost can’t be tolerated,” said Davis McCallum, who directed a 2012 off-Broadway staging at Playwrights Horizons. “And then it has this really cathartic release at the end of the piece — a blackout, a sound effect, and a moment where the audience just lived in that silent darkness together.”

Both the play and the movie “The Whale” center on Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a reclusive, morbidly obese instructor of online writing classes who has been eating himself to death since the passing of his lover, a casualty of religious homophobia.

An obese man wearing a button-up shirt sits in a dark room

Review: Does Brendan Fraser give a great performance in ‘The Whale’? It’s complicated.

Darren Aronofsky’s intimate chamber drama, adapted by Samuel D. Hunter from his own play, navigates a tricky line between empathy and exploitation.

Dec. 8, 2022

The character is an amalgamation of Hunter’s past lives: as a closeted gay kid attending a fundamentalist Christian school in rural Idaho, a depressed adult who silently self-medicated with food, and an expository writing instructor for college freshmen (the piece’s heartbreakingly honest line “I think I need to accept that my life isn’t going to be very exciting” is an actual submission from one of Hunter’s students).

Throughout “The Whale,” Charlie is visited by his estranged and troubled daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink) , and his frustrated ex-wife, Mary (Samantha Morton), both of whom Charlie abandoned when he ended his marriage and came out as gay; Liz (Hong Chau) , a conflicted caregiver who is also the sibling of Charlie’s late lover; and Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a fundamentalist missionary who is far from home. Hunter doesn’t shy away from any of the issues the characters are dealing with “but doesn’t bury you in [them] either,” said Martin Benson, who directed a 2013 staging at South Coast Repertory. “He’s not advocating anything, he’s just writing what he believes is true.”

These characters and their concerns are similar to those in Hunter’s other plays, which tackle subjects “fundamental to Greek tragedy: the limitation of humanity’s vision, the place of religion in society and the desperate longing for relief from the lonely uncertainty of life,” wrote Times critic Charles McNulty when Hunter received the MacArthur “genius” grant in 2014. “He proceeds not with a moral point but through observation of the way his characters either defend their bunkered existences or attempt to reach beyond them — or more commonly, some combination of the two.”

An actor in shirt and tie talks to an obese man seated on a couch in a play.

Throughout the intimate live piece — which is staged without the escape of an intermission — all five characters reveal truths to each other and the audience that raise the stakes of their potential bonds.

“These deeply flawed characters actually care about each other so much, but there are so many obstacles for them to express that love or connect with one another in real ways, however desperately or destructively,” said Joanie Schultz, who directed a 2013 production at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater. “So when some of them finally do, it’s gorgeous and almost magical.”

Numerous stagings of “The Whale” accentuate the pressure-cooker effect by designing Charlie’s living room, where the entirety of the play unfolds, with an extra sense of claustrophobia or isolation. For example, the 2014 Bay Area run raised the Marin Theatre Company stage by four feet and angled Charlie’s ceiling so that, from the audience’s perspective, the character appeared to “dominate the space in a way that intimidated the people who visited him,” said director Jasson Minadakis.

Likewise, the off-Broadway version strategically lit the space “so that it felt as if his room were hovering in this dark void,” said director McCallum; the Chicago staging positioned the proscenium “like an island in the sea, which was really effective because they’re all alone on their own islands in some ways, with all these barriers to connection,” said director Schultz.

A woman kneels next to an obese man who has on his face tubing providing oxygen in a play.

Darren Aronofsky on ‘The Whale,’ fatphobia and empathy

Director Darren Aronofsky dives deep on “The Whale,” fatphobia, human connection and how he feels about Brendan Fraser and Sadie Sink.

Dec. 13, 2022

Within these confined spaces, the actors who played Charlie — each wearing body suits weighing anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds — charted his arc physically and emotionally. As he attempts to nudge daughter Ellie toward a place of authentic self-expression, he too reveals himself to his students. The intention is that, by the time Charlie shares that he’s giving his life savings to Ellie, and endures great pain to stand up and walk toward her as she reads her “Moby-Dick” essay aloud to him, the audience would feel the overwhelming fulfillment Charlie gets during his final breath in the play.

“Every night, it was a journey, and it wasn’t easy to watch or to perform,” recalled Tom Alan Robbins, who starred in the 2012 world premiere in Denver. “His goal is self-destructive, but you want the audience to understand what has driven him to do this, and that his redemption is in the relationship he tries to forge with his daughter. You want that last second to be a combination of incredible pain and incredible triumph because, however briefly it is that they connect, it’s still an achievement for him.”

“Ellie says terrible, devastating things to Charlie throughout the whole thing, but he loves her so much that it doesn’t even hurt him,” said Matthew Arkin, who played Charlie at South Coast Repertory. “So in that final moment, whatever flaws he had, whatever mistakes he made and in whatever ways he couldn’t love himself enough, he lived a life redeemed, because he gave everything to save his daughter.”

Whether Charlie dies at the end of “The Whale” is up for debate. As written in Hunter’s script, the stage directions of that breath simply read, “A sharp intake of breath. The lights snap to black.” Many theater makers say that breath could very well be his last inhale, after which he is finally freed from the pains of his body, his loneliness, his grief. “The love and connection that Charlie gives Ellie is a gift, and hopefully she will remain true to her voice and herself in a way that he gave up on,” said Hal Brooks, who directed the Denver premiere.

It also could be considered in a metaphorical way, mimicking “how whales immerse themselves for so long underwater and then they finally come up to the surface,” said Schultz, or “a deep intake of breath before diving in somewhere they’ve never gone before,” said Shuler Hensley, who played Charlie in the New York run as well as a London staging in 2018. “It’s a brilliant ending, because audience members have constantly told me they couldn’t breathe afterwards. They didn’t know what to do, whether to applaud or get up or move because they’ve become so connected to Charlie.”

A young woman sitting on a couch near an obese man sitting on a desk in a play.

When asked about the ending, Hunter didn’t clarify Charlie’s status because, he said, it’s not necessarily relevant. “The final moments of this play and this movie abandon realism a little bit, and it’s no longer about this guy in this apartment,” he explained. “What matters is that he’s connected with Ellie, he’s done the thing that he’s been trying to do throughout this entire play, and that connection feels real and genuine. There’s this apotheosis that happens, and in the film, Charlie literally ascends off the ground.”

Though Hunter didn’t write the beach scene that follows Charlie’s onscreen ascension, he called it “marvelous” and shared an interpretation of what it might mean: “If it’s a flashback to the last time Charlie went swimming in the ocean, close to when the family fell apart, what I see in that shot is a man staring down the abyss of self-actualization, contemplating the decision he has to make about the different avenues he can take.

“Maybe he was thinking about what would happen if he stayed in that marriage: Ellie would have grown up with a closeted father, [his lover] Alan would have been miserable and, as Liz points out, would have probably died way before he did when he was with Charlie,” Hunter continued. “Choosing to stay or leave, both paths are complicated and tragic in their own ways, but ultimately, I think Charlie took the more hopeful route, and chose to look for the salvation one can find through human connection.”

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movie review on the whale

Ashley Lee is a staff reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where she writes about theater, movies, television and the bustling intersection of the stage and the screen. An alum of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Critics Institute and Poynter’s Power of Diverse Voices, she leads workshops on arts journalism at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. She was previously a New York-based editor at the Hollywood Reporter and has written for the Washington Post, Backstage and American Theatre, among others. She is currently working remotely alongside her dog, Oliver.

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The Whale review: Brendan Fraser shines in a overwrought, underbaked drama

The actor is better than director Darren Aronfosky's stagey adaptation.

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

movie review on the whale

In every awards season, there are certain movies whose heat index seems to rise almost solely because of a central performance: actors so indelible in the part they transcend the flaws and missteps of the film formed around them. (Renée Zellweger in Judy was one a few years ago, or Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody ; both won Oscars.) Brendan Fraser 's astonishing turn in The Whale often feels like that to the n th degree: a tender, modest, and momentously human piece of work plonked in the midst of a drama so masochistically stilted and stagey it often feels less like a movie than an endurance test, or even worse, a parody.

The staginess, to be fair, is at least partly because it was in fact a play, one that director Darren Aronofsky spent the last decade trying to bring to the screen (the playwright, Samuel D. Hunter, also penned the adaptation). Why the man who helmed Black Swan , The Wrestler , and Requiem for a Dream would find a bleak psychological drama about deeply broken people appealing is not a mystery; what he found irresistible here though, is less easy to see. Fraser's Charlie, in the opening scene, is just a voice inside a black Zoom screen. That's because he teaches remotely at an online college, but his excuse of a broken laptop camera is a lie: The truth is he's morbidly obese, so large that he can't leave his shabby apartment or even stand up without a walker. He can just about manage to bathe and feed himself, but other activities (masturbation, laughing) leave him too clammy and winded to breathe.

There's a gadget for nearly every physical thing he can't do on his own — handles and pulleys in the shower, a special seat in the bathroom, even a little clawed picker-upper for whatever he might drop on the floor. And a friend named Liz ( Watchmen 's Hong Chau ) comes faithfully every day to check his vitals and bring him groceries. Liz is also a nurse, and she keeps telling him plainly that he's dying. But she's often interrupted by a knock at the door: First an earnest young missionary (Ty Simpkins) named Thomas hoping to spread the good word, and later, Ellie ( Stranger Things ' Sadie Sink), his estranged teenage daughter whose only words for him, primarily, are sneered f-bombs. Ellie, hissing and venomous, hates him because he left her mother ( Samantha Morton ) years ago for another man, but mainly she hates everything.

Aside from a single brief flashback, the action, such as it is, is confined entirely to Charlie's drab apartment and the small roundelay of guests who steadily come through to drop chunks of story exposition or settle scores. Fraser — encased in elaborate prosthetics that Aronfosky revels in shooting like a Caravaggio, all shadows and moody, milky light — welcomes them, down to the missionary kid. Charlie knows that he's killing himself and he knows why, but there's hardly any complaint or self-pity; instead he's emotionally generous almost to a fault, a man still eager to spread his love of Walt Whitman and Moby Dick and only connect, even if his efforts are met with mockery or disgust.

He and Chau, who brings a bright acidity and affection to Liz, often seem to be drawing from a different well than their castmates. But all the actors are left to mine their own layers in characters who have only the scantest backstories and broad traits: Hellish Teenager, Troubled Soul, Man Too Big to Live. Those dynamics may have played out better on stage, where a certain kind of bold underlining serves a live audience. Here it often feels clumsy and maddeningly inconsistent, stranding Fraser in a melodrama undeserving of his lovely, unshowy performance. Whatever he wins for The Whale — and early prizes have already come — he deserves. The rest is just chum. Grade: C

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Whale’ on VOD, Darren Aronofsky’s Wildly Uncomfortable Oscar Bid for Brendan Fraser

Where to stream:, all a24 movies ranked: from ‘a glimpse inside the mind of charles swan iii’ to ‘priscilla’, new movies on streaming: ‘cocaine bear,’ ‘unwelcome’ + more, where to watch all the 2023 oscar winners online, teary-eyed brendan fraser’s oscar speech brings the house down with best actor win, nautical puns.

No one would accuse Darren Aronofsky of being a timid filmmaker. Latest case in point: The Whale ( now streaming on VOD services like Amazon Prime Video ), a divisive drama starring an Oscar-nominated Brendan Fraser , who donned a fatsuit to play a morbidly obese man who’s essentially trapped in his own home; Hong Chau ( Downsizing ) earned a 2023 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod for her role as the man’s only friend. The film is based on a play by Samuel D. Hunter, who also penned the screenplay; it also marks Aronofsky’s first film since 2017’s unforgettably nutso mother! , although this one hews a little closer to his Mickey Rourke career-rehab drama The Wrestler . Now let’s see if The Whale can hang with the rest of his filmography.  

THE WHALE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Charlie (Fraser) teaches online college writing courses. His little square in the Zoom meeting is black; he says his camera is broken but in truth, he doesn’t want anyone to see him. He weighs 600 lbs, gets around with a walker, eats pizzas and meatball subs two at a time, and is dying of congestive heart failure. We know this because his closest friend Liz (Chau) is a nurse who stops by to take his astronomical blood pressure, chastise him for not going to the hospital – he steadfastly refuses, because he has no health insurance – and deliver him food. Is she helping him, enabling him, or something else? I think it’s something else: She’s loving him. Maybe that’s what he needs most.

MONDAY, reads a subtitle. Charlie vigorously masturbates to gay porn – vigorously enough to nearly die of a heart attack. He’s gasping for air when the doorbell rings and it’s not Liz but Tom (Ty Simpkins), a missionary from the New Life Church. Tom just wanted to drop off some pamphlets, maybe chat about Christ and the End Times, and he ends up reading aloud a student essay about Moby-Dick at Charlie’s breathless request. The porn laptop is slammed shut and Charlie calms down. The essay always calms him down. He loves it because it’s so honest; there’s a line in it that says all the “boring” chapters about whaling only stave off the narrator’s sad story temporarily. Charlie finds the prose in the essay beautiful. Maybe in his final moments, it’s the last thing he wants to hear.

TUESDAY. Charlie’s daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink of Stranger Things ) stops by. To call her simply a sullen and angsty teenager is to equate the Pacific with a driveway puddle. She hasn’t seen her father since she was eight and he left her and her mother. Charlie was in love with one of his night-class students, Alan. Mistakes were made. Bitternesses formed. And now Ellie hurls insults. “You’re disgusting,” she says, followed by even worse things. But they’re glancing blows for Charlie, who agrees to help her with her essays so she can scrape by and graduate high school. Where’s Alan, you may ask. Well, he’s dead, and Charlie has been mired in depression for years. What you see, this man so terribly close to self-inflicted death, is the result, and in his mind, there’s no turning back.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Whale is What’s Eating Gilbert Grape meets The Wrestler .

Performance Worth Watching: Fraser’s performance is so emotionally open-hearted, you can’t help but admire the raw empathy on display. But the true MVP here is Chau, whose frequent jolts of spirited comedy keep the film from being wholly miserable. 

Memorable Dialogue: Ellie’s mother (Samantha Morton) drops by Charlie’s apartment to assess their daughter: “Charlie, she’s evil !”

Sex and Skin: Does full-frontal fatsuit count?

Our Take: The Whale is an overwhelming, all-over-the-place, eminently watchable, deeply depressing, absorbing, mournful, wretched and thoroughly admirable mess. Its stage origin is evident in its single-location setting; Charlie never leaves his apartment, so neither do we. The narrative settles into a routine in which Liz, Ellie, Tom and the pizza guy regularly stop by (we only briefly see the latter; Charlie puts the money in the mailbox so the delivery guy won’t see him, although he shouts through the door a couple of times, asking if Charlie is OK). It challenges us early on with that masturbation scene, and follows it with unblinking staredowns at Charlie as he maneuvers his girth through his tight, cluttered apartment, to bed, to the shower, to the kitchen so he can stress-gorge on candy bars. Aronofsky films in a tight, boxy aspect ratio to emphasize the claustrophobic nature of Charlie’s existence; the lighting is dim and you can’t help but wonder if it’s as stuffy and smelly as it looks.

Exaggeration is a key item in Aronofsky’s toolbox here, and he positions the film tonally in an odd place of heightened melodrama with the slightest hint of surrealism and humor so bleak, I never even considered laughing at it. (We should expect nothing less from the guy who made Black Swan and mother! ) Where Fraser and Chau’s interactions consist of spirited naturalism, Sink’s Blunt Force Daughter character wrecking-balls through the movie, so unerringly in the red and over the top, I didn’t believe it for a second. And Simpkins’ holy-bible thumper feels almost as phony, an artificial means to frame Charlie’s homosexuality and leper-like status within a larger philosophical context. It’s strange to see the earnestness of Fraser’s performance alongside the type of tin-eared characterizations that has us calling bullshit on them so frequently.

Let’s make one thing clear: Nobody’s pointing and laughing at Charlie. Aronofsky’s career-long obsession with the grotesque is alive and well here, and he skirts the edge of exploitation. But The Whale is very much a splayed-open tragedy, and a weirdly romantic one at that, with a protagonist whose death wish cloaks a pie-eyed optimist who insists his daughter is wonderful despite her lashing cruelties. It’s with such an interpretive realization that one comes to understand The Whale as a fable set in a heavily affected setting where discussions of Moby-Dick wield all the subtlety of a battering ram, where lost loves inspire suicidal behavior, and where, well, everything is much bigger than reality.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Whale is a wildly mixed bag. It’s distressing and uncomfortable. But if you gird yourself for Aronofsky’s unapologetic exhibition of physical and psychological suffering, you’ll get to see Fraser’s valiant portrayal of a man with a leviathan heart.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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movie review on the whale

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Common Sense Media Reviewers

movie review on the whale

Compassionate, mature look at living with severe obesity.

The Whale Movie: Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Thoughtful dialogue and discussions around love, l

Charlie is a smart, positive-thinking man who does

Movie approaches Charlie's experiences with obesit

Dialogue describing a horrible death (a bloated bo

A character masturbates, with his hand underneath

Language includes "f--k," "bulls--t," "s--t," "a--

Various snack foods and sodas on display: Pepsi, 3

Teen vaping and smoking pot. A main character smok

Parents need to know that The Whale is a drama about a man (Brendan Fraser) who's living with severe obesity and trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink). Directed by Darren Aronofsky, it's a compassionate movie with mature, complex themes. Violence is described in dialogue, and there's…

Positive Messages

Thoughtful dialogue and discussions around love, literature, truth, and faith. Movie is also about dangers of pre-judging people. Promotes compassion.

Positive Role Models

Charlie is a smart, positive-thinking man who does everything he can to support his daughter, but he also has some major weaknesses. He lies to his students and keeps a big secret from his best friend, one that ends up hurting her. And he's forever apologizing for things, revealing a lack of confidence. In one sequence, after hearing bad news, he binge-eats and vomits. Liz, a nurse and Charlie's best friend, is selfless in her devotion to him, though she's often frustrated by him and sometimes even teases him. Some characters say cruel things about someone being overweight.

Diverse Representations

Movie approaches Charlie's experiences with obesity from a sympathetic place. He's also gay and mourning the loss of his true love. But the movie frames fatness -- and queerness -- as something shocking that needs to be "humanized" in the first place. Another major character is a strong, complex Asian woman (Vietnamese actor Hong Chau). Charlie's daughter, Ellie, is very smart, although she's also quite difficult and likes to make trouble; her mother is also a smart, three-dimensional woman. A South Asian supporting character shows kindness to Charlie. The only other character is Thomas, a White male missionary. Cruel language about a person being fat is heard.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Dialogue describing a horrible death (a bloated body washes up on shore, etc.). Main character frequently in pain. Main character chokes on food. Binge-eating and vomiting. Violent dialogue about death, stabbing, rape, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A character masturbates, with his hand underneath sweatpants. A pornographic video plays on a laptop, with one person kissing and thrusting behind another. (No graphic nudity shown.) Charlie is shown shirtless in the shower. Strong sex-related dialogue.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "f--k," "bulls--t," "s--t," "a--hole," "f--got," "retarded," "goddamn," "bitch," "hell," "idiot," "shut up," "stupid," "penis," "oh my God." "Jesus" and "oh Christ" as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Various snack foods and sodas on display: Pepsi, 3 Musketeers chocolate bar, Dr. Pepper, etc. Mentions of Walmart.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teen vaping and smoking pot. A main character smokes cigarettes regularly. Dialogue about teen smoking too much pot. Character drugged with Ambien. Dialogue about someone who drinks frequently. Dialogue about college students drinking alcohol.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Whale is a drama about a man ( Brendan Fraser ) who's living with severe obesity and trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter ( Sadie Sink ). Directed by Darren Aronofsky , it's a compassionate movie with mature, complex themes. Violence is described in dialogue, and there's some unsettling imagery of things like binge-eating, vomiting, choking, etc. A man is shown masturbating (his hand is down his pants) and watching a pornographic video (one person kisses and thrusts behind another). The main character is also seen shirtless in the shower, and there's some strong sex-related dialogue. Language includes several uses of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," and more. Teens smoke pot and vape, a character is drugged with Ambien, and there's dialogue about smoking too much pot and drinking too much alcohol. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

movie review on the whale

Community Reviews

  • Parents say (6)
  • Kids say (6)

Based on 6 parent reviews

Not worth it. Don’t understand why it’s getting awards

“the truth will set you free “, what's the story.

In THE WHALE, Charlie ( Brendan Fraser ) teaches English classes online while living with severe obesity. He pretends that his laptop camera is broken so that his students can't see him. He never leaves his apartment, ordering all of his food delivered and getting occasional visits and care from his friend Liz ( Hong Chau ), a nurse. When Charlie learns that his blood pressure is potentially lethally high, he refuses to go to the hospital, instead devoting his energy to reconnecting with his brilliant, estranged, and deeply troubled teen daughter, Ellie ( Sadie Sink ). Meanwhile, a young missionary, Thomas (Ty Simpkins), happens upon Charlie and decides that he wants to help save his soul.

Is It Any Good?

Like Darren Aronofsky 's other movies, this dark drama doesn't shy away from the realities of its main character's situation, but what lingers are its deep wells of compassion. The Whale launches with Charlie's masturbation being interrupted by crippling chest pains. This initially casts him in a pathetic light, but as the story progresses over the course of a week, viewers begin to see who Charlie really is: loving, intelligent, sensitive, and an undying optimist.

Fraser's work is unfailingly powerful, Charlie's bright eyes consistently gleaming with hope. Playing opposite him, Chau is equally brilliant. The screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter, adapted from his own play, is filled with discussions about love, literature, truth, and faith (Aronofsky has grappled with themes of faith in much of his work, especially Noah and Mother! ). Aronofsky's direction is skilled but not showy, closer to The Wrestler than his other movies and focused mainly on character and performance. The movie flows beautifully, even if it sometimes feels a little stage-bound and cutesy. (For a recluse, Charlie is never without someone to talk to.) Overall, it's a movie that twists preconceptions.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Whale 's depiction of body image . How do you think the filmmakers intend you to see Charlie? What message is the movie saying about judging others?

Why is it so important to Charlie for people to "write the truth"?

Did you notice positive diverse representations in the film? Are stereotypes used, or avoided?

How are drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

How does the movie promote compassion ? Why is that an important character strength?

Movie Details

  • In theaters : December 9, 2022
  • Cast : Brendan Fraser , Hong Chau , Sadie Sink
  • Director : Darren Aronofsky
  • Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors
  • Studio : A24
  • Genre : Drama
  • Character Strengths : Compassion
  • Run time : 117 minutes
  • MPAA rating : R
  • MPAA explanation : language, some drug use and sexual content
  • Award : Academy Award
  • Last updated : September 9, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Greatest Movies Of The Last Five Years That Aren't Sequels

I t's no secret that Hollywood has entered an era where franchises and sequels dominate the box office , whether it's the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe project or a continuation of classic horror movies. However, there have been plenty of brilliant films in the last five years that either presented a wholly original story or were the latest adaptation of a classic. For many fans, having something new to sink their teeth into has reminded them that there's still a range of good stories to get in cinema beyond franchises.

Hollywood has always told some of its best stories through fresh and original films, and the recent era of cinema has been no different. While superheroes and slashers may continue their reign of dominance, there's almost always something new playing in theaters for people who want it. Some of the film industry's best creators have turned in some of their most outstanding works in the last five years.

10 Most Iconic Movies That Were Almost Never Made

The hunt is a controversial merging of horror and satire.

Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don't know where they are, or how they got there. They don't know they've been chosen - for a very specific purpose - The Hunt.

Release Date 2020-03-13

Cast Hilary Swank, Ike Barinholtz, Betty Gilpin

Runtime 1 hour 30 minutes

Genres Thriller, Action, Horror

The latest in a long Hollywood tradition of movies centered around the hunting of human beings for sport, The Hunt is a great combination of action and satire. The film follows a group of conservative Americans who, after waking up in the middle of nowhere in Eastern Europe, realize they're being hunted by wealthy liberal elites. The movie primarily follows Crystal May Creasy, a veteran of the Afghanistan War targeted by the elites by mistake.

The Hunt transforms from its horror trope of wealthy people torturing the poor (as seen in films like Hostel) into a revenge thriller as Crystal tears her way through the elites. The movie does a great job of establishing a sense of paranoia as the hero is left with no one to trust, relying on her wits to survive against all odds.

Sisu Is Peak Action

When an ex-soldier who discovers gold in the Lapland wilderness tries to take the loot into the city, Nazi soldiers led by a brutal SS officer battle him.

Release Date 2023-04-28

Cast Jorma Tommila, Jack Doolan, Onni Tommila, Aksel Hennie

Runtime 91 minutes

Genres Action, War

REVIEW: Sisu is the Most Artistic WWII Kill-Fest You've Ever Seen

Sisu tells the story of a Finnish prospector during the Second World War who, after discovering enough gold to make him rich, finds himself at odds with a small band of Nazi soldiers. After the fascist soldiers attempt to kill the man, they find themselves at the wrong end of this former commando's rage as he turns the tables on his pursuers.

Sisu does a great job at maintaining the impressive comeback of high-octane Hollywood action as it follows its hero's bloody adventure across Finland to kill the Nazis. The movie combines the action of John Wick with a World War II setting as its hero leaves a trail of Nazi bodies in his wake on his journey to cash in on his gold.

Tenet Is a Time-Traveling Mission: Impossible

Release Date 2020-09-03

Cast Elizabeth Debicki, John David Washington, Robert Pattinson

Rating PG-13

Runtime 2 Hours 30 Minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller

One of Christopher Nolan's most hotly-anticipated non-Batman movies , Tenet is also an incredibly confusing story. Telling the story of a CIA agent known simply as "the Protagonist," it follows his journey into a new world of espionage that uses entropy as a form of time travel. With an arms dealer bent on bringing the world to nuclear war, the agents are tasked with bringing him down.

The work Nolan put into crafting Tenet's story is obvious in the execution, leading to a movie that demands a second viewing to fully appreciate. The movie feels like Mission: Impossible with a time-bending twist, and its final fight as Protagonist joins a small army to save the world is fantastic.

The Whale Is a Heartfelt Tragic Drama

Release Date 2022-12-21

Cast Ty Simpkins, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Brendan Fraser

Runtime 117 minutes

Genres Drama

Based on Darren Aronofsky's play of the same name, The Whale tells the story of Charlie, an overweight English teacher who attempts to rebuild his relationship with his estranged daughter. After promising her a large sum of money, Charlie tries to earn back his daughter's love, while also struggling with his self-esteem from his weight and his ailing health.

The Whale is a heartfelt tragic drama that deals with grief in a relatable way, revealing that Charlie fell into depression after blaming himself for the death of a man he loved. The movie marked the career comeback of Brendan Fraser, and rightfully earned praise from critics and audiences alike.

The Irishman Tells The Story of a Notorious Gangster

The irishman.

Release Date 2019-11-27

Cast Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel

Runtime 209 minutes

Genres Drama, Crime

The Irishman Is Cinema - But Is It Great Cinema?

The Irishman tells the story of notorious mobster Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and his ascension into the world of organized crime. Beginning as a corrupt union official, Frank used his connections with the mob and his skills from World War II to become a hitman for the Italian Mafia.

The Irishman is certainly a long movie, even for its genre, but that allows for a slow-burning, highly-detailed examination of its characters and their lives. The movie ties Sheeran to the infamous assassination of Jimmy Hoffa, and has an ensemble cast that turns in some of modern cinema's best performances.

The Northman Is a Viking Revenge Story

The northman.

Release Date 2022-04-22

Cast Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Claes Bang, Willem Dafoe, Alexander Skarsgard

Runtime 137 minutes

Genres Drama, Action, Adventure

The Northman tells the story of Prince Amleth, a Viking prince who, following an attack on his kingdom, embarks on a quest for bloody vengeance against his enemy, his treacherous uncle. Having sworn an oath to avenge his murdered father, Amleth becomes a Viking berserker and begins his mission of redemption.

The Northman is a great combination of period drama and revenge action as Amleth heads out on an epic adventure to kill his attackers. The movie is brutal and bloody. It's perfect for people who want a gritty tale of vengeance with some good history thrown in.

The Highwaymen Shows the Truth Behind Bonnie and Clyde

Based on the true story of the manhunt for criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde, The Highwaymen tells the story of two retired lawmen hired to find and bring down the murderers. Starring Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner as two seasoned investigators, it takes viewers on a journey through the Deep South during the Great Depression. Instead of previous movies that cast the crooks as modern-day Robin Hoods, the movie highlights the violence they left in their wake.

The Highwaymen shatters the romanticized image of Bonnie and Clyde, instead telling their story from the point of view of the men charged with ending their reign of terror. The film makes great use of tension and builds on the relationship between its two protagonists as they find new purpose in a world that had left them behind. It's a great neo-western thriller, and it would be perfect for fans of projects like 1923 or True Detective .

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Is An Alternate History Take On '60s Hollywood

Once upon a time in hollywood is quentin tarantino's funniest film yet.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood follows a dramatized version of 1960s Hollywood through the eyes of an actor, Rick Dalton, and his stunt double, Cliff Booth. The film follows the two men as they navigate the changing landscape of 1960s Hollywood. As Rick tries to revive his ailing career, Cliff finds himself being introduced to the Manson Family.

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is one of Tarantino's more unique films, almost feeling like a dramatized biopic of '60s Hollywood itself than anything else. The friendship between Rick and Cliff dominates the story's narrative, leading to a showdown between them and members of the Manson Family, perfectly honoring Tarantino's use of alternate history.

Pig Marks The Comeback Of Nicolas Cage

Hailed by many as the official comeback movie of Nicolas Cage's career, Pig follows a reclusive truffle farmer, Robin Feld, who heads into Portland after thieves steal his pig. Returning to his old life as a master chef in the city's high-end restaurant scene, Robin teams up with the son of one of his old rivals as they follow the trail of the missing animal.

Though many were quick to connect the plot with that of John Wick , Pig is a slow and tense drama that follows Robin as he draws nearer to discovering the truth behind his beloved pig's abduction. The movie masters a raw emotion that very few modern dramas have accomplished. It's engaging in every scene -- something rare for its genre. As great as the screenplay is, Cage's performance sells it as worth a watch -- and reminds viewers how talented the actor is.

Dune Is The Best Adaptation Of Frank Herbert's Novel

A noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.

Release Date 2021-10-22

Cast Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, Jason Momoa, Oscar Isaac

Runtime 155 minutes

Genres Drama, Action, Science Fiction, Adventure

The latest adaptation of Frank Herbert's iconic science fiction novel of the same name, Dune tells the story of the galactic war between the futuristic dynasties House Atreides and House Harkonnen. Focusing on Paul Atreides as his father is handed control of the planet Arrakis and its valuable spice production, the film follows the Harkonnen attack to remove the threat Paul and his family pose to their ambitions.

Dune is a great demonstration of what cinematic worldbuilding should be, with director Denis Villeneuve and the movie's effects teams crafting a world that brilliantly immerses viewers in Herbert's creation. The battle sequences are brilliant, the characters are well-written, and the film succeeds at every level when it comes to giving people a unique world, one with its own compelling politics and cultures.

Greatest Movies Of The Last Five Years That Aren't Sequels

The Sign of JONAH - Part 2 - The Whale, The Cross and The Eclipse

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    Ellie secretly records their conversation. Out of concern, Liz takes Mary to visit. When Liz learns about the amount Charlie has saved for Ellie, she storms out, furious over being lied to about why he avoided medical treatment. Mary and Charlie argue over his decision to leave his family for Alan.

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