The Whale - A Light in the Darkness

Out of all the buzz surrounding the Oscars this year one story that has been hard to miss is the massive push behind Brendan Fraser who appears to be the odds on favourite to take home the best performance award for his role in The Whale after years of being out of the limelight. I always find it hard going into a movie that has already received so much praise especially when it is directed at a single actor since it is hard as a viewer to not isolate their performance, based on the acclaim it has received, from the rest of the film and thus risk missing out on much of the movie. However, one thing that put my mind at ease was the fact that this film was directed by one of my favourite filmmakers that being Darren Aronofsky who is responsible for making several of my favourite movies including Mother, Requiem for a Dream, and Black Swan. I have also Seen The Wrestler and his first film Pi and I did not enjoy them as much as I found them to be overly bleak even though they are well made and interesting pictures. Thus, in going into The Whale I also feared that it would be too depressing to enjoy much in the vein of something like The Wrestler. I am relieved to say that The Whale, though it is a very dark movie that deals with a pressing issue affecting more and more of society as of late, is an amazing accomplishment both from behind and in front of the camera.

The Whale tells the story of Charlie, played by Brendan Fraser, who is a morbidly obese man who in coming face to face with his own mortality seeks to find some purpose in his remaining days on Earth through reaching out to his estranged daughter Ellie played by Sadie Sink. The very first shot of the film, which I include below, that involves Charlie reveals much about him as we see him teaching a college course online with his webcam off such that there is a black void in the middle of the Zoom class meeting which the camera zooms in on reflecting that Charlie is retreating into himself similar to falling into a black void. This shot reminded me of one famous shot from Psycho, which I also included below, where we see a transition from water cycling around a drain to a swirling shot of Marion Crane’s eye who has been killed reflecting that her life has gone down the drain. Additionally, it is noteworthy that during his class session Fraser is teaching his students about the importance of communicating ideas though he himself is not fully communicating with them as he is the only one to not turn his camera on. It is also interesting to see so many movies, including this one, taking advantage of the recent trend to use the 4:3 aspect ratio or some variation of it for artistic purposes which seemed like such a new phenomenon only a few years ago with Robert Eggers 2019 film The Lighthouse. I think the aspect ratio was utilized well in this movie as having the audience’s perspective of Charlie’s life constantly held between two large black bars reflected the isolation he had forced upon himself and the pressure weighing on him due to his declining health.

Brendan Fraser takes on a very different role here than many may be expecting even if they go in knowing the subject matter being discussed. While his charisma is still present underneath the weight he gained for the role and the prosthetic used in the film this was an incredibly vulnerable role for him to take especially given that there is a shocking scene early in the movie where a door to door salesperson for a church opens his front door to find Fraser undergoing a medical emergency all the while a gay porn film he was previously pleasuring himself to plays in the background on his laptop. Fraser is the light in the darkness in this film which is strange given that much of the film deals with his character being in such a dire place. His ability to bring levity to some of the darker moments here resulted in it feeling more authentic as compared to some other movies which deal with these events in a more sterilized and clinical fashion.

Aronofsky is the master of misery, no other director better captures characters in crisis such that the audience might fear that at any moment the floor could fall away and the earth swallow them whole. This feeling resonates throughout the film from the opening sequence when Fraser appears to be on the verge of dying to later where a calm conversation between him and Liz, a nurse who is helping him and is played well by Hong Chau, is interrupted as he nearly chokes to death and is only saved after a horrifying sequence in which Liz helps clear his airway. Additionally, Aronofsky does a great job of using natural lighting to further the emotion present in such scenes and make it appear as if Fraser’s character is living inside a tomb based on the horror esque lighting with shadows strewn throughout his limited apartment. The set design was also clearly intentional in this film as the movie appears to be set in the present yet much of the technology in Charlie’s home is out of date including his television and laptop which we come to learn is not a result of him being short on funds and instead is the outcome of his reluctance to go outside in the world. The music in this film is also top notch as the musical score was frequently used to further the intention behind what the characters were saying or doing which was especially evident in a tragic moment later in the film where Fraser’s character appears to be on a suicidal binge eating food.

The way The Whale approaches Charlie’s problem with food was something I was uneasy about going into the film since obesity is such a wide and varied problem plaguing society whose root cause seems to be a subject of divergent and heated debate in society. Here Aronofsky portrays Charlie’s relationship with food as an abusive one where he knows it is hurting him yet he uses food as an escape from the problems it is causing him in a horrible and perpetuating cycle. For instance, early in the movie Charlie is told by Liz that he is suffering from congenital heart failure which at first Charlie reacts to flippantly only later for him to Google it which we can see alarms him based on the emotion Fraser brings to the scene which his character chooses to relieve through eating an unhealthy snack over a healthy one which he had grabbed prior to his heightened emotional state. I found this fascinating since Charlie clearly understands that this food is not good for him and yet he resorts to it as a means of escaping the emotions he is feeling that overwhelm him.

Throughout the turmoil in Charlie’s life and his dire circumstances he still maintains much optimism which was a refreshingly nuanced look at someone who is suffering as opposed to a movie, such as To Leslie, which portrays a character in turmoil as only needing to decide to stop their problematic behaviour to overcome all. On the other hand, in The Whale, it is shown that there are several layers to what is plaguing Charlie and it is not as simple as just saying no to his desire to eat since it is not just a coping mechanism but also an addiction that began after he suffered a trauma in his life. Additionally, while Charlie’s life is spiraling out of control he is not naive to his circumstance and fully comprehends the damage he is doing to himself so much so that he is able to joke about it and see the good in others yet he cannot stop which I thought was a very genuine and heartbreaking look at the problem of obesity. Thus, when Charlie is confronted with his daughter Ellie’s overly nihilistic perspective heavily motivated by teenage angst and the betrayal she feels from Charlie abandoning her early in her life he responds not by giving into despair but instead encourages her to interrogate these emotions she is experiencing. Due to his constant optimism Charlie does not, as so many others have, write off the views Ellie has as being without value and in the process he helps break her out of a similar downward spiral. This reminds me of a great scene from The West Wing, which I will include below, where one character explains to another what it takes to help people in need.

One of the more interesting relationships explored in this movie is the relationship between Charlie and the man he sees outside the window delivering his pizzas. At first the delivery man is shown to be one of the only people in Charlie’s life to honestly ask him how he is doing from outside the window and they strike up a sort of friendship over time even with him never seeing what Charlie looks like. However, this changes later in the film when the delivery man finally sees Charlie reaching outside his door to retrieve his pizza as he was scared to reveal what he looked like out of fear that he would be mocked or looked down on which occurs as the delivery man appears to be disgusted by Charlie’s appearance and runs off which deeply upsets Charlie. My initial reaction to this scene was sadness since I found it incredibly troubling that the one positive relationship Charlie seemed to be developing over the course of the movie turned into exactly what he had feared all along that being him being shamed and made to feel the outcast yet again.

However, the more I think about this scene the more I come to understand it beyond my gut reaction including what some people online have written including that the delivery man is not disgusted solely by Charlie but also by himself since he helped Charlie hurt himself by constantly delivering food to him. Additionally, I think this scene could be a comment on our society where obese people have long been the target of jokes and even looked down on even though it is society that is supplying them with the increasingly available ingredients to hurt themselves. While I still find it troubling to think of how the relationship between Charlie and the delivery man who earlier expressed concern for his well being turned out I think in the larger picture Aronofsky gave us an insightful and nuanced look at both the relationship between these two characters and the larger image they reflect in the world at large. While I am discussing how the movie comments on society I must also mention what the door to door salesman from the Church named Thomas, played well by Ty Simpkins, discusses with Ellie regarding how he wishes to be as happy as his friends appear online which is something that plagues many today especially the youth who are trapped in a social media landscape where they are inundated with curated and largely fantastical versions of their peers online on these platforms.

The Whale is a deeply engaging movie with a layered and dark story which managed to come to a satisfying conclusion I do not wish to spoil for you but I ensure will not leave you feeling as if you are in the dark cave Charlie resided in. I highly recommend this movie both because it is so well made and for the powerhouse performance Fraser puts forth which will surely be talked about for years to come. I gave this film a 9/10.

Here is the trailer for The Whale.