Directed by : Darren Aronofsky

Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring ? 

Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau in a still from 'The Whale'

Spoilers ahead.. 


Charlie (Brendan Fraser) eats and eats, not because he loves it, its a habit he formed out of the trauma suffering from the loss of his love, Alan (one of his students during teaching days long back). The story is told over a week starting from Monday when Charlie seems to be inching closer to his death with his stubborn-ness not to visit the hospital. 

This is the 3rd movie of Aronofsky that I have watched, 'Noah' and 'Mother' previously both of which I didn't like though the latter had me in for its crazyness. 'The Whale' is a depressing movie where we see how the life of an overweight guy gets affected because he lost his lover. I don't remember a movie where a person overeats in grief and mourning, usually the opposite happens. Here, Charlie overdoes it to an extent that he can't even get up from couch or walk without using help of a stand. 

There's the excellent Hong Chau (Liz) who plays his nurse and also a close friend taking care of him. She believes his condition is worsening and he won't last more than a week if he doesn't listen to her and agrees to go to the hospital. Everytime the story stays on them, its enjoyable and also emotional in moments specially when we learn a bit later how Liz is related to the lover Charlie lost. I also like the fact that Liz despite being a nurse keeps bringing junk food for Charlie to eat, maybe she has attempted enough in past and just wants to let Charlie enjoy his final days the way he wants. 

I also enjoyed the few online teaching scenes we see, where ofcourse Charlie lies about a non-working webcam so that his students don't get to see his over-weight body or even face.  His interaction with his wife Mary (Samantha Morton) was good, at first it hinted at another cruel character but I liked how their conversation went to their old good memories. 

Where the movie falters for me is, both the Church guy, Thomas (Ty Simpkins) and Charlie's daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink) subplots. Thomas just serves no purpose at all except for maybe bringing back old memories of Alan to Charlie since Alan's death had to do a lot with religious beliefs. I certainly felt without Thomas part of narrative, it would have not changed too much around, Charlie anyways was all the time thinking about Alan only while slowly drifting away towards his own death. 

Ellie on the other hand has such an impressive first scene where she is so cold blooded to force her own dad walk to her towards the door knowing he can't do it because of his overweight. But, the next meetings between them are disappointing, we rather see the father-daughter bonding, the daughter he had left behind when she was 8 because of Alan. I agree there was a reason for Ellie to act angry, but Sadie overplays it and that 'I am so hurt you left me behind' part gets underplayed due to that. I would have liked her role to be less evil and full of anger/hurt still. She does get a good solid final scene where we are finally revealed about where exactly that 'Whale' poem originated from, the one Charlie time and again wants to narrate himself or make someone else narrate to him when he feels he is about to die. 

Due to the shortcomings in writing of Thomas and Ellie, it gets tiring to watch a movie that has no exterior locales. I have seen movies that start and end in one-room setting too but they require to have not a single weak character which isn't the case here. Maybe the movie would had worked lot better had it started say a day after Alan dies, we could had seen the slow journey of Charlie to self-destruction by over-eating and some flashbacks of good times with Alan along with Ellie becoming a part of his life in some interesting manner. I know this feels like a total different take from what director intended here. 

One of my fav character in the movie is Charlie's no face-to-face interaction with Gambino's food delivery boy everyday whom he always asks to put the food outside door and Charlie collects it once he feels the delivery boy is gone. The thought comes to mind that what if one day he decides to open door and collect food directly ? And it happens but in  slightly different manner, Charlie opens the door to collect food unknowingly that the delivery boy was standing at stairs to get a glimpse of this guy who never shows face.  And the reaction the delivery guy gives followed by quickly going away suggests how hurt Charlie must have felt that this guy who was having just 'Hello' conversations for weeks (or even months) would also not do that anymore with him. 

Its a very painful feeling to go through and no wonder we see Charlie get angry resulting in over-eating pizzas after pizzas and also anything he gets hand on in the kitchen/fridge. The anger even makes him finally attend a class using his webcam, and we see varied reactions of students, mostly not good ones (few even record it) to see Charlie is such a fat guy. 

While I enjoyed Brendan Fraser's performance who even in those poorly written sub-plots keeps you invested with his reactions, I still won't consider it to be that good as an Oscar winner worthy. It was tough to watch him manage all alone at home, not just talking about how physically he looked from front or back (thanks to the very well done makeover) but the struggle he faces to get up and walk inside the home.. almost made me feel how do people with so much weight manage their daily life. In this case, Charlie has added weightage of dealing with trauma which makes it worse. I loved how all the time Charlie is having a positive look at people saying they are amazing, specially at a time when I am sure most of them find him disgusting. 

Overall, The Whale has solid performances from Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau, it just lacks in providing an engaging drama and gets melodramatic too. 

My Rating : 5.5/10