The Whale

Director: Darren Aronofsky

20 March 2023

See

Her: The Whale by Darren Aronofsky, the second greatest manipulator after Lars Von Trier. This is a story of Charlie (Brendan Fraser) a sickly obese man who in the end of his life decides to reconnect with his daughter after leaving her and her mother many years ago.

Him: The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, opens with Charlie (Brendan Fraser) a morbidly obese man masturbating to gay porn, on climaxing he begins to have a heart attack. He’s scrambling for an essay which he starts to read in his delirium. A door knocking Evangelist enters to try and help but rather than seek medical attention Charlie has him read the essay and his angina subsides. His nurse friend (Hong Chau) comes to check on him later and it’s made apparent he hasn’t got long left. He reaches out to his daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink), alternates between shame eating, teaching his online students essay writing with his webcam off and is overcome with unresolved grief at the loss of his partner which affected him to this end.

Think

Her: Aronofsky has dedicated his whole career to proving the bible wrong and especially all the various ways people misinterpret it is seemingly unarguable. Charlie’s obesity is not a cause, it’s the result of his trauma, something bigger and uglier that happened to him in the past which he failed to overcome. It’s pointless to search or who did wrong in the first place, it won’t provide any resolutions. Charlie, however, knows that there’s only one thing that can save them. And that is not religion, not money, not medicine. It’s kindness and love. It’s a very surprising outcome from a film by Darren Aronofsky.

Him: Brendan Fraser as Charlie starts off revolting when showing him eating and being unwell. But the initial aversion turns to a transcendent grace, when you see the faraway look in his eyes, like gorging is a panacea for his pain.You stop looking at him and hearing what he has to say. And in asking for more from his students writing, and honesty from his daughter in expressing herself. Scene changes where his massive form moving has the gravitas to cause the frame to tremble. Aronovsky directs sublimely with his cinematographer Matthew Libateque showing a man, hiding in his apartment like an agoraphobe. But kind. And sweet. Sensitive and sympathetic. And positive to a fault. Yet apologetic for his shortcomings. Being a burden on others and abandoning his daughter and wife for the love of a man. Samantha Morton when she appears as his ex is devastating in how she and Fraser switch between caring and bitter. So present after a life long absence when he left them when Ellie was 8. Now at 17 she’s cruel, and mischievous, and struggling at school. Charlie offers her his life savings and tutoring in order to know her as a young woman in his last moments.

Feel

Her: The way I feel about this film is probably how Ellie felt about Charlie: confused, mad, unable to understand, manipulated, abandoned, adoring and hating at the same time.

Him: Aronofsky concludes with cathartic climaxes like no one else. This reminds me of The Wrestler, particularly because of the father daughter relationship, though the other movie it made me think of was What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, not just because of an overweight parent, but being stuck in your circumstances and trying to escape its inevitability. 

The beach scene exposition and reoccurring essay about Herman Melville’s Moby Dick makes for a fitting finale which is the dual meaning along with Fraser’s huge frame (he wore a prosthetic suit controversially). He won the best actor Oscar (uncontroversially). A moving comeback.