“The Whale” (2022)
“People are amazing!”.
To posit that I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of The Whale would be a monumental understatement considering the opus blog article on the career of director Darren Aronofsky linked at the bottom of this opening paragraph. Although my thoughts on Mother from 2017 are still absent, I love that film for reasons quite unexplainably twisted and one day, one fine day, I’ll pen my words of appreciation to fit alongside the love, the sheer twisted and strange love I have for his debut film Pi, the depressed adoration I have for Requiem for a Dream and the retrospective appreciation I found after the event for The Wrestler. As you’ll see for yourself if you bravely dive into my career appreciation for the New York born filmmaker, I can take and indeed leave The Fountain and Noah but I hold Black Swan tight to my obsessive heart. Black on white. White on black. Reflections. Obsessions.
Obsessions. Reflections.
Written by Samuel D Hunter and based upon his own 2012 play of the same name, The Whale is essentially the last will and testament of a dying man who through the depressive fug of seeing his life partner die has resorted to binge eating to extreme excess. It’s also the final week in the life of a man who desperately wishes for a brief re-connection with his estranged daughter as “I need to know I’ve done one thing right with my life”, but he already has, and will continue to do so long after his impending death.
That man is Charlie.
“Charlie” (Brendan Fraser) Oscar nominated for an actor in a leading role, Fraser produces the finest work of a career I’ve appreciated since the turn of the century and The Mummy franchise as well as Crash in 2004. In a somewhat paradoxical way, Charlie only sees the very best in other people as he exclaims excitedly that “people are amazing!” yet he doesn’t see that quality in himself. Despite his size, ill health and a seriously debilitating and failing heart, he refuses to go to the hospital and “I’m not interested in being saved”. He seemingly has no time for the labels of life be they a carer, a religious missionary or even an errant daughter, rather he wants their friendship and companionship when not busy with the twin passions of his life, eating and being an online English tutor. Tellingly toward the end of the film he invokes his students to write from the heart and to be themselves as he too reveals himself on a webcam for the first time to the gasps of horror from his students. “Mr Positive” he may be, but Charlie has been on a downward spiral toward his own death for some time now and whilst infuriating a carer who desperately wants him to seek hospitalised care and help, he only wants to spend valuable time with a dangerously wayward daughter he only sees the very best in, and to say “sorry”, repeatedly, over and over, and over again.
“Sorry”.
With a cast comprising of just six other roles surrounding, interacting and intersecting with Charlie’s life, Samantha Morton comes and goes in a heart breaking cameo of righteous anger as his ex wife and mother of their daughter “Ellie”, who is brought to vivid life by Sadie Sink fresh from her overwhelming success in the Netflix behemoth series Stranger Things.
“I hate everyone” she exclaims angrily and Ellie sure does, hating herself, everyone in her orbit (despite seemingly manipulating them constantly too), but she reserves a hatred for a father who abandoned her and despises what he has become. Ty Simpkins portrays a teenage man child missionary who accidentally falls into Charlie’s life and whilst it’s “not a cult”, he takes a rather childish and age appropriate approach to saving Charlie into his church in a fantastic performance that also, because of the way he stumbles into Charlie’s life, felt a little forced, but which also developed brilliantly as the story gathered pace after the halfway mark.
The Whale has 3 Oscar nominations for this years Academy Awards and in addition to the nomination for hair and make up and Brendan Fraser’s central performance is Hong Chau for her portrayal of the long suffering carer (and only friend Charlie has) in the guise of “Liz”. Chau is magnificent in a role that spoilers won’t allow for its complicated nature but rest assured, she is far more than the put upon carer come nurse, come only friend Charlie really has. There’s a difficult balance here between patient and friend, carer and enabler, but the human relationship between the two also shines through as Charlie can be totally himself when with Liz.
“and I felt saddest of all when I read the boring chapters that were only descriptions of whales, because I knew that the author was just trying to save us from his own sad story, just for a little while.”
With a six minute standing ovation at the Venice International Film Festival, four BAFTA nominations and three Oscar nominations, there is an incredibly sad story to be told with The Whale and no doubt the praise has been immense and the anger and vitriol evening out the critical response. The film itself broke me way before the end credits with its stark reality of a sweating, wheezy man driven to the compulsions, addictions and obsessions that thematically run through every film from Darren Aronofsky. It’s difficult to watch and even comprehend at times. A man destined for death but not actually seeking it, who’s rather exhausted by a life that haunts him and for whom saying sorry is a reflex action to the people he only sees the very best in even if, like Charlie, they don’t see that human goodness in themselves.
Just below Requiem for a Dream and above Black Swan on the grimness scale, The Whale is highly recommended if heart breaking and an incredibly difficult watch at times.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 250 blog articles (with 450+ individual film reviews) within my film library from which to choose:
