The Whale (2022)

Under normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of seeing The Whale at the cinema but with the awards buzz that the film (in particular Brendan Fraser) has courted, I thought I would give it a go. Going to the cinema on a Saturday morning, the screening was fuller than when I went to see Babylon. Daren Aronofsky did a film in 2009 which saw him basically resurrect Mickey Rourke’s career and from obscurity to winning an Oscar and it looks like he is going to do the same with Brendan Fraser. 

The Whale stars Brendan Fraser who plays Charlie who is a morbidly obese teacher who during the course of the film is trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter as he comes to terms with the fact that he is in fact dying. The film is very light on joyous moments. In fact I would go so far as to say that there are no moments that you could say pause the sad tone that the film has from start to finish. The closest I came to this was when I thought they wouldn't do a joke and then they did. The scene where Charlie is backing into the large wheelchair that Liz has got for him and I thought they wouldn't do the beep-beep of a reversing vehicle and then Liz did that. Some might find the final shot a moment of joy that he is getting that reconnection with his daughter but bearing in mind we don't see it I can't say that it counts. 

There are moments which are quite hard to watch. The scene where Charlie gorges on food after the reaction of the pizza delivery guy almost made me heave which I suspect was the point but it comes from that moment when the Pizza guy is almost disgusted by what he sees as its one of the few relationships that Charlie seems to form and I felt sorry for Charlie because he it's a rare opportunity to interact with someone other than Liz.

The performances are what make this film worth seeing. Fraser is deserving of the plaudits he is getting because it's very hard at times to tell when he is acting and when he is just being himself. His positive stance at several points during the film seem to suggest the character is more Brendan than Charlie. Sadie Sink is also quite good as Ellie. She is just the right amount of angry teen and yet starts to show some personality as the film progresses. I thought that Samantha Morton’s brief scene was powerful but really good and it would be unfair not to mention Hong Chau as Liz who has a no nonsense exterior but has some emotional connection to Charlie and their bond is rather sweet. As much as I think Ty Simpkins is a good actor, I didn't really think that the character had much apart from his scenes with Ellie. 

I like The Whale but I don't love it. Its hard to love this film due to the performances. It is a film that people should see. I think that for a two hour film to take place in one apartment and not feel like its dragging is quite an achievement. It's a rare thing for me nowadays to say that a film has the perfect running time but The Whale is one of those films and whilst the film itself may not win many awards I think the Brendan Fraser will and he deserves it because he seems to be a nice guy and its the sort of ‘back to the top’ stories that people love.