The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C-
The latest effort from director Darren Aronofsky, The Whale is a great performance in search of a better film. While Brendan Fraser deserves all of the praise that he is getting for his lead performance, the film itself is a fairly underwhelming drama that never develops the emotional resonance worthy of Fraser’s work. This is largely due to the writing of a single supporting character that completely undermines the intended message of the film, but more on that in a moment.
Based on a stage play by Samuel D. Hunter, The Whale is about Charlie, a morbidly obese English professor that never leaves his apartment and teaches his class virtually without ever activating his camera to hide his weight from his students. Charlie is divorced due to an affair that he had with another man, quite to his wife’s surprise, leaving him depressed, estranged from his teenaged daughter and eating copiously as an emotional coping mechanism. The film is set entirely in his apartment as he deals with his condition, both physically and emotionally, and tries to reestablish a relationship with his daughter.
The film’s origin as a stage play is obvious, as a small cast and single location make it quickly apparent that the material originated in a theater. In terms of scope, The Whale is (ironically, I suppose) a very small film. Aronofsky even cleverly filmed in a 4:3 aspect ratio, creating a small picture that intentionally emphasizes the claustrophobic setting of Charlie’s apartment (similar to what Robert Eggers did with The Lighthouse a few years back). This is not a criticism, mind you, as small, single-location films can work brilliantly. Some of Hitchcock’s best films fit into this category. Aronofsky isn’t Hitchcock, but the presentation works here and the film effectively puts the viewer into Charlie’s shoes, a prisoner of his own actions who’s unable to venture beyond the confines of his apartment.
The performances are also generally excellent. I admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Brendan Fraser, but I also never thought that he was capable of a dramatic performance of this caliber. Fraser’s Charlie is both sympathetic and infuriating; one wants to both smack him (and smack the meatball sandwich out of his hands) and root for him at the same time. It’s an incredibly layered performance, as the look in Fraser’s eyes is both that of a man that desperately needs help and doesn’t think that he is deserving of help. It’s honestly brilliant and, combined with the fact that he just seems like a really nice dude, I hope this does turn into the career renaissance for Fraser that the internet seems so intent on making a reality.
The rest of the cast is also solid, particularly Hong Chau as a nurse with ties to Charlie’s past that has reluctantly resigned herself to the cognitive dissonance of enabling Charlie’s overeating while also trying to keep him alive. Ty Simpkins gives a solid performances as a Christian missionary, even though his necessity to the plot, both functionally and thematically, is a bit questionable. Samantha Morton gives a brief but effective performances as Charlie’s ex-wife, though I wish that their relationship was given more screen time over the missionary’s subplot. My favorite secondary character actually has almost zero screen time: a pizza delivery guy (played by Sathya Sridharan, who doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page) that becomes concerned about Charlie because of his frequent deliveries to the same address. I really wanted more screen time for this guy.
So, why didn’t this get a better grade? The daughter. The goddamn, insufferable daughter. To be clear, this isn’t a criticism of actress Sadie Sink’s performance; she does a fine job of delivering what’s on the page for her. The problem is that what’s on the page is awful. The entire dramatic arc of the film hinges on the relationship between Charlie and his daughter and his efforts to reconcile with her. However, she is such a terrible, irredeemable person that their relationship doesn’t work. In fact, I’ll go several steps further: I wanted this character to die. It would be one thing for her to be reluctant to accept a relationship with her father, given the circumstances. But this goes way, way too far. She’s an overall despicable person that constantly mocks her father and demands money, and that he rewrite her school papers, in exchange for spending time with her. There is no arc for her, no redeeming moment. She is just a terrible person that completely undermines the dramatic core of the film because it’s impossible to root for a reconciliation of their relationship. If anything, one roots for Charlie to cut ties with her wish the best of luck to whatever poor bastard ends up with her. Or she could die alone and miserable, which would be the only true happy ending here.
For movie lover, The Whale may (and I stress “may”) be worth watching for Fraser’s performance and the techniques used to translate a stage play to film. However, despite Fraser’s best efforts, the film’s dramatic impact is completely nullified by the baffling choices made with the daughter character. If you’re not interested in Fraser’s performance, there is not much to see here.
Image By: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whale_(2022_film)#/media/File:TheWhalePoster.jpg
