The Whale
- Seb Shaw
- Apr 22, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: May 18, 2023
SnarkAI Score: 85/100
tldr:
"The Whale" is a cinematic journey that's as intimate as it is uncomfortable. It's a claustrophobic exploration of self-loathing, redemption, and the human capacity for both cruelty and kindness. Brendan Fraser delivers an Oscar-worthy performance as Charlie, a man trapped in his own body and his own guilt. The supporting cast, particularly Sadie Sink and Hong Chau, bring depth and emotional resonance to this tragic tale. It's not an easy watch, but it's a powerful one that will leave you pondering long after the credits roll.
Our Scores are generated by SnarkAI's analysis of our reviewer's writing. The tldr summary is drafted by SnarkAI based on that review. All Images are AI-generated based on the reviewer's descriptions of scenes.
A- Go watch it. Though seeing Charlie's life, I doubt you'll be able to make yourself eat all the snacks you've brought for the film's duration.
First shot, grainy 4:3 of a bus stop in the middle of a flyover state. Darren Aronofsky really wanted that Oscar.
Followed by a slow zoom on a Zoom call's black screen for our protagonist, Charlie, teaching a class on writing and explaining his camera is still broken.
We then get to watch him nearly have a heart attack whilst pleasuring himself to soft-core gay porn. A convenient knock at the door leads to a young Mormon being roped into saving him by reading an essay about Moby Dick. The Mormon's only question, aside from "Can I call you an Ambulance" is "Why did you want me to read that essay to you" It's a fair question.
His nurse, Liz who he calls his friend, comes round to see how he's doing. The Mormon's still there reading the Good Book in a corner of the room. He wants to leave but also doesn't want to seem like a bad person to himself. The actor does a solid job here in silence.
The nurse and Mormon discuss the end of the world, the nurse sees the darkness and suffering, and the religious boy has hope of beauty. It's a tad on the nose.
Liz and Charlie rush wildly through anger and apology and a few laughs. It's clear they've had conversations like this before and the speed is from a well-worn path, not a poor script. She knew his late boyfriend and what happened and their history is shared trauma from the Mormon church. It's later we find out their shared trauma is a shared suicide. Her brother and his boyfriend, are driven to end it by the pressures of his homophobic priest father.
Charlie eats a bucket of fried chicken whilst she leans her head on him and watches TV. Given how unclean he and his apartment are, I'm not sure I'd put my head anywhere nearby.
Charlie once again reads the same passages of the essay. After a sentence or two, he puts it down but continues narrating. Shirtless, he talks about the "White Whale" and how it has no emotions and is a poor big animal as he moves through the apartment, his body so much like the whale. It's honestly better done than it sounds, as writing it, it comes across as ham-fisted.
This is not a film supporting HAES, Charlie works his way through a sizable drawer full of snacks as he alternates between grading papers and reading about his heart disease. Despite his size and constraints, he showers and shaves. He's not quite given up on himself, but he is too ashamed to be seen by others except his one friend.
Charlie feeds a bird with small sliced fruit. We don't see the bird.
His daughter, Ellie, answers his request to visit. It's obviously been a while since she asks "Does this mean I'll get fat?" She's cold, distant, and angry, she tells him to her face that he's disgusting and it's not his weight, it's his student-fucking ways.
Charlie offers Ellie a way to graduate, he'll pay her $120,000 to stay and spend time with him and he'll help her pass her classes. It's sad, painful, and desperate. Frasier really sells it, you know he has felt it himself. Ellie is brutal to him. Understandably but unpleasantly. She makes him walk unaided. She doesn't blink or flinch as he collapses. The door closes and the apartment darkens.
Charlie has a routine with the Pizza Guy, he leaves money in the mailbox and they leave multiple large pizzas on the ground. But this time the guy asks if he's ok. Charlie's voice has a catch to it when he says he's fine. "thank you" contains the sum of his surprise and appreciation for that moment of real human care.
Liz is not happy his daughter is back in his life, and even more unhappy Charlie almost dies choking on his food. She cares so much for him, but you can see her fraying at the edges as he no longer cares for himself.
Ellie never forgets anything, and she is ruthless in her questioning. In many ways, she's serving as Charlie's own subconscious. He can't forgive himself for his own actions and he can't stand himself.
The Mormon, Thomas, returns and is entirely unable to deal with Ellie, it's fun! Their scenes together are pure chaos energy as the threatens him and flirts with him. Ellie threatens to murder her father if he doesn't do a hit of weed with her. He used to be a serial stoner. She compulsively shoots photos of him and interrogates him. She negs him over and over. It's rare I'm on the side of a doomsday cultist missionary, but I feel bad for him.
Turns out he's not a Mormon (he was in the stage play, but they've made him more generic for film) he's a member of the New Life cult, who also believe god will save 144,000 people just like the Mormons, but they're different. She's sort of flirting with him in an aggressive, offputting way. The not-Mormon decides to lecture Charlie, he calls it 'saving'. Charlie much better read and far too full of self-loathing to listen. The definitely not Mormon missionary considers this a mystical calling due to the coincidence. Liz lays into him, saying he's only got a few days left and only she could save him.
We're an hour in and it went by without really noticing. Not much is happening, but it's not much happening with gravity to it. The scenes have a weight to them.
Ellie reacts, as many teenagers do, with frustration and embarrassment when it becomes clear he cares for her and thinks highly of her. But it's clear it touched her. She angrily makes him a sandwich, telling him it will be a small one and no mayo.
Turns out Thomas has been lying, and Ellie knew. He's not from New Life, he was sent to preach but ended up standing on street corners giving out pamphlets. Thomas was underwhelmed by this. Thomas is locked in a dark room, talking through the door to Ellie, she's lit from above, and he's half in darkness. The camera slowly creeps in on him as he tells us how he left the mission taking the petty cash with him.
Ellie's not just listening, she's recording. It feels like a betrayal. Thomas finds Alan's (the brother/lover) bible and leafs through it. He nearly finds her recording, but she turns it into taking a photo.
Liz has called Mary, the ex-wife. She comes in like a wrecking ball. Telling Liz about the six figures in Charlie's account, despite him having no health insurance, any of the support he needs, and her having to walk through the snow with his groceries as her truck had broken down. Mary, in a heart-to-heart with Charlie, finds out a little about his life, and shares hers then tells him their daughter is 'evil' and proves it with her social media where she's posting pictures of him with captions like "There will be a grease fire in hell when he does". He tries, as he keeps trying to do, to be positive about it, but she screams at him for just not listening.
They move through emotions as only close friends or family can. leaping from the peaks of anger to the depths of sadness. If Frasier won Best Actor, it's as much because of the performances of those around him giving him everything he needs to respond.
Mary puts her head on his chest to listen to his heart, mirroring Liz's pose earlier when they watched TV. Charlie's hand hovers in the air, uncertain if he could lay it on her shoulder.
Dan's waiting in the rain to see what the mysterious Charlie looks like after picking up his pizza. He then runs off, Charlie assuming it's because he is disgusted by the sight. More likely because he's embarrassed to be caught.
Charlie demands "WRITE ME SOMETHING FUCKING GOOD" in a message to his students, and then in a deeply uncomfortable scene, crams food into his face, with no care or constraint, his mouth and clothes stained with the residue until he's finally sick and weeping.
Thomas returns, confessing his lies and that Ellie had shared all his secrets to the world. He's hopeful that her brutality was a brutal honesty, not a cruelly. His parents have told him he's forgiven and can return. Thomas then tells him that Alan died because he chose Charlie, not God. It's tone-deaf, patronising, and offensive in the way only the truly passionately religious can be.
Charlie gives a litany of his physical problems, pushing at Thomas until Thomas admits he finds him disgusting. The answer Charlie feared but also wanted.
He's been removed from teaching the class, but in his final lesson, he turns on the camera so they can see him. The horror and disgust on their faces exist in a time earlier than when we are seeing this play. Charlie's huge, but the rise of a wider group of body positivity influencers across media means he's not so shockingly obese that it would cause such surprise in middle America. Like his interpretation of Dan's reaction, we are left to wonder how much is Charlie's own self-hatred rather than the hatred of others.
Charlie smashes his laptop when he finishes the call.
Alan was dying of an eating disorder, he refused to eat.
Liz, having spent the film trying over and over again to help Charlie, and we find out, having done the same with Alan, tells Charlie "I don't believe anyone can save anyone" Charlie takes comfort in his interpretation of how Ellie behaved to Thomas, that she did help him.
Charlie tells Liz "People are Amazing"
The Moby Dick essay was one Ellie wrote when she was a child, he gave it to her instead of the one he had promised to write. She's furious. Until he tells her how he's valued that piece of writing and how sorry he is for everything. He brings her to tears.
Charlie dies, but not peacefully. With Ellie reading the essay to him, she almost leaves, door open, sun on her face, but turns, tearful, stood in the doorway. Charlie tries to walk unaided across to her. the sun washing his face out to an unhealthy pale white. Step by heavy step he approaches his daughter. Unlike earlier, Ellie walks to him. She smiles through her tears.
There's a rapture moment, feel leave the ground, a scene of a child and father on the beach.
and burn to white.
Well, that's quite a ride.
The closeness of the 4:3, and the fact we, like Charlie, are trapped in the apartment makes the film claustrophobic. We occasionally get out, following the nurse or missionary, Charlie doesn't, he sometimes looks out, pale and overwhelmed through a door. It's almost more theatre than cinema, which is unsurprising as it is a slight rewrite by Samuel D. Hunter of Samuel D. Hunter's play.
The cast is tiny but do incredible things. Brendan Frasier, who won an oscar for his role here and deserved it. Sadie Sink from Stranger Things is raw and emotional. Ty Simpkins the missionary shows he has more range than being a 'kid' in a real movie (the boy in Iron Man 3 and the boy in Jurassic World.) and finally, Hong Chau carries the burden of carrying Charlie. Other than this there is the voice of Dan the pizza man, and Mary the ex-wife.
