The Whale is the story if a man who is morbidly obese and is trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter who he has not seen in many years.

The films protagonist, Charlie, is housebound and his only only contact with the outside world at the start of the movies is hist students (Charlie is an English lit teacher for a university or college, but does his lectures via a Zoom style program, his camera is “broken” though), and a woman called Liz who is his friend and also a nurse. There’s also a pizza delivery guy who delivers but is instructed to leave the pizza outside.

Charlie’s world is a grim one. We see how he struggles with the every day life of his weight and there is an explanation of how he got where he is. In the start of the film he almost dies but a missionary from a church comes in and Charlie has him read an essay about Moby Dick to him. After a few moments Charlie starts calming down and his friend Liz arrives. The missionary, Thomas, is soon scared off by Liz (played by the fantastic Hong Chau) and she tries to get Charlie to go to hospital, he doesn’t, claiming he can’t afford it.

Charlie (played by Brendan Fraser in an awe inspiring performance) then spends the evening with Liz, who clearly cares for her friend, and at first I thought she was enabling him but I realised that wasn’t the case. If it wasn’t for her Charlie would have been dead and we discover why she has such a strong affection for him. That love is returned somewhat by Charlie, but he’s also thinking about his daughter (Ellie) and wanting to make sure she’s okay.

When Ellie comes into the film she’s bitter and resentful of the father she feels abandoned her. She clearly tries using him to get a good grade in school and for money that he promises her to spend time with him.

There’s a line in this movie that struck home with me. Charlie says to his daughter when she’s questioning where he’s been for most her life and he replies with “who would want me to be part of their life?” this line really resonated with me. A few years ago I had a few of suicidal thoughts, and one occasion I was suicidal, and the seed of those thoughts was that I wasn’t any good to anybody and the lives of my loved ones and the world as a whole would be better without me. I know that’s all bullshit now. It’s our brains on full scale attack. Charlie speaks of a lot of good in this movie, but very little of that good is in reference to him. Even his delinquent daughter he sees the good in, but himself. He’s disgusted by who he is and it feels like he’s somewhat playing out a slow burn suicide.

An element I liked was when different characters interact. The scenes between Charlie and Liz are beautiful and brutal at the same time. Liz doesn’t hold back from pointing out Charlies weight (not in a nasty way but in a matter of fact way), but she also shows him affection and support.

What we see between Charlie and Ellie (Sadie Sink) have so many different emotions in them. Charlie is pleased to see her while she’s outwardly hateful of him, but despite her disdain of her dad and life in general you do see some small hints of the eight year old girl who doesn’t understand why daddy isn’t there anymore and just wants him to be there for her.

There’s some scenes between Ellie and Thomas, which shows deeper sides to them both. The scenes with Liz and Thomas (Ty Simpkins) are something to behold. Liz doesn’t hide her distaste for the church that Thomas represents and he doesn’t really know how to react to her at times.

One of my favourite scenes is when Liz brings Mary to Charlie’s home. Mary is Charlie’s ex-wife and Ellie’s mum. She is not happy and the way a scene between Charlie and Mary is played out is brilliant. It’s got a lot of emotion in it. It’s one of the best scenes I’ve ever seen and Brendan Fraser and Samantha Morton (Mary) absolutely nail it. Lesser actors wouldn’t have made this scene, which is vital to the plot, as powerful as it had to be. 

The way the film ends is not really my cup of tea, but unlike another one of Darren Aronofsky’s movies, Noah, this didn’t leave me feeling annoyed. The Whale overall is hard to watch at times, there’s one moment for example when Liz has to save Charlie’s life and that is beautifully built up to, and then executed.

The film wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for the cast though, and this is one of those movies where I think they nailed each character. The five lead actors all need to be strong in their ability as they have to stand against each others performances. Actors without as much talent would have got swept away by what the others bring to the scenes. Although Fraser’s performance has dominated much of the praise I’ve seen (he thoroughly deserved his Oscar and other awards), let’s not take away from Chau, Sink, Simpkins, and Morton. Hong Chau got an Oscar nomination for her performance as Liz, and it was well deserved. This is the first time I’ve come across her and damn, what an introduction to an actor! The same with Sadie Sink. She plays the troubled teen so well, that even through the dismissive way she treats her dad at times, when Sink needs to show a sliver of vulnerability she gets it perfect. Ty Simpkins is someone I’ve know of, I’ve seen him in Jurassic World, and Iron Man 3. I like him, he’s got talent and I liked what we saw of his acting chops here. And Samantha Morton, we all know the talent she has and considering she doesn’t have a lot of screen time, boy does she get it perfect.

Samuel D. Hunter created a brilliant world here, and Darren Aronofsky transfers it to the screen perfectly. Now, I don’t particularly like Aronofsky’s work. This is the third film of his I’ve seen. Black Swan was okay. Noah was not my cup of tea. The ‘feel good ending’ wasn’t nearly feel good enough to make up for the film. (I’m not taking anything away from the people who worked on this movie, I can’t imagine how much work goes into making a movie, this just really wasn’t for me). It even had me at the point where I had no desire to ever watch another film by Aronofsky, but I love Brendan Fraser. He’s had a shite few years but he’s managed to rebuild his career and I needed to see him in this film.

If you haven’t seen this movie, I’d recommend you do. Even if it’s just from a writing perspective, it’ll be worth your time.