The Whale

 

DIRECTED BY-:
Darren Aronofsky
STARRING-:
Brendan Fraser
Sadie Sink
Hong Chau
Ty Simpkins
Samantha Morton
Sathya Sridharan
YEAR OF RELEASE-:
2022
PREMISE-:
A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

THE NEGATIVES:

• During the sequence in which Thomas’ secret is revealed, I personally found Sadie Sink’s performance too energetic and fast paced. While this scene is definitely important in the grand scheme of things, a tighter edit would’ve ensured that it DID actually feel that way as it played out.

• The way the characters showed up one after the other at Charlie’s house felt a little too coincidental in certain moments.

THE POSITIVES:

PERFORMANCES

Everyone in the cast did a great job at portraying their characters. Brendan Fraser in particular gives his career-best performance. His role is equal amounts physical as it is emotional, and he is able to proficiently convey a plethora of emotions through subtle movements, voice-modulations, and expressions. While the prosthetics on his body could initially come across as a bit jarring and cartoon-y, their portrayal and integration became quite excellent as the film progressed. Good dialogues and realistic set design further aided the actors in making the characters feel believable.

MUSIC

The beautiful background music is used efficiently and judiciously to accentuate the emotions of the screenplay. The piece titled ’Safe Return’ , that plays over the final scene and the end credits, was my personal favorite from the soundtrack.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & CAMERA WORK

Given the fact that Brendan Fraser is already 6 foot 3 inches tall AND that Charlie is depicted to be somewhere around 272 Kgs, the 4:3 aspect ratio of the film is very effective at making the viewer feel claustrophobic. It further drives home the feelings of isolation and loneliness. The editing and camerawork are also dynamic enough at capturing the same location in interesting ways which never lets the sequence of events feel stagnant or dull.

HUMOR

The Whale is a very depressing watch for majority of its runtime, but, I appreciated that it still had a few good moments of levity, which provided the audience as well as the characters some respite, such as-:

• Liz tickling Charlie after he pokes fun at himself, saying shoving a knife into him won’t do any harm since his internal organs are “two feet in at least”.

• Charlie’s “That’s an interesting perspective” comment after Ellie ends her rant about Walt Whitman’s “overrated” poem.

• Charlie saying “She’s a strong writer” after seeing her Facebook post humiliating him.

• Charlie’s “Whee” and victory gestures after he first sits in his wheelchair. 

CHARACTERS

The film packs in an ocean of great character work in less than two hours — an admirable feat that I would like to compliment by breaking down and analyzing different aspects of its characters —:

Charlie

Charlie is a man on the verge of his death, ridden with immense guilt, regret, and grief from the loss of his partner. Throughout the course of the film, he tries his best to achieve a semblance of reconciliation with his estranged daughter before passing away. He knows that he has been a very flawed husband and father, and tries to atone for his sins by essentially slowly killing himself, as he saves whatever money he has to secure the future of his daughter, rather than using it for medical facilities. As he tells Mary in a very emotional scene, he needs to make sure that after all of the terrible things he’s done in his life, he gets at least this ONE thing right. 

His almost delusional optimism, especially when it comes to interpreting the nature of his daughter’s character, is both endearing and incredibly heartbreaking to watch. He is delighted that her hastily written, low-effort angsty sentences coincidentally form a haiku. He is more impressed by the sentence formation and honesty of one of her Facebook posts, rather than be sad at the fact that she publicly humiliated him in that very post. Even when it’s revealed that Ellie snitched on Thomas - an act that could just as easily be interpreted as malicious as it can be kind, Charlie doesn’t doubt Ellie’s intentions even for a second, and concludes that since the outcome of the snitching was a positive one for Thomas, then surely that MUST’VE been Ellie’s intentions all along. 

As made clear through the Facebook post example, Charlie highly values authenticity and uniqueness of perspective in writing, something that he implores his students to incorporate more of in their essays, rather than regurgitate generic and pretentious platitudes. This, along with his love and optimism towards Ellie, is why he believes her 8th grade essay on Moby Dick to be the best he’s ever read. Hence, this piece of writing not only seems to fill Charlie with life metaphorically, but also quite literally, as reading it acts as a way of calming him down when his blood pressure spikes. 

Yet, for all his emphasis on authenticity, truth, and honesty, at least when it comes to writing essays, we see Charlie struggle with implementing the same principles in his personal life, whether it be because of his fear of being judged, being ashamed of his physical appearance, or because of his traumatic past experiences. I mean, it is revealed that Charlie and Alan faced judgement and discrimination from their community when their relationship became public — Alan was banished from his church by his father of all people, and Charlie wasn’t allowed to identify Alan’s dead body because he “wasn’t family”. Hence, it’s only natural to assume that a person who’s gone through all that would have trouble being his authentic self in front of other people, especially when his morbid obesity is not something he can just hide, unlike his sexuality. 

This shame and fear of judgement creeps out in different forms with different people, like —:

• He lies to his students about his webcam not working, 

• He avoids answering the door himself anytime Dan makes a pizza delivery,

• He asks Thomas if he thinks he’s disgusting twice — initially referring to only his physicality but later also his sexuality, when Thomas’ true thoughts about Alan come to light.

• He says to Ellie, “Who would want ME to be a part of their life?”.

• He suffers through a binge-eating episode when Dan runs away supposedly in shock after seeing him.

Charlie is also shown to be dishonest with Liz about his financial condition. This is why, perhaps, his repeated instructions to his students about the value of honesty were never completely  about their essays, but were also a projection of how he wanted himself  to be. 

Charlie’s guilt, compounded by shame, often results in people openly insulting him, and Charlie taking it, since he believes he deserves it (which, granted, he kind of does). However, the only subject he immediately objects to talking about is Alan. He is still riddled with immense amount of grief, as we see him excuse himself to the bathroom to cry after Ellie tries talking about his death. Therefore, it makes sense that the only time in the movie we see him fiercely stand up to someone is when Thomas blames Alan’s fate on his sexuality.

One of Charlie’s final lines to Liz is — “Do you ever get the feeling that people are incapable of not caring? People are amazing”. 

While this line could come across as another one of his delusional optimistic thoughts, and it partially is,  it is not completely unfounded, as even though Charlie has a strained relationship with almost every character of the film, they all show different signs, either overt or subtle, that they do care about Charlie’s well being. Firstly, Liz, his only true friend, provides him company, watches television with him, and essentially acts as his personal nurse. She tries to help him to the best of her ability, by introducing useful medical machinery and a more accommodative wheelchair. Dan, a complete stranger to Charlie, also tries to check in on him every now and then from the outside whenever he comes to make a pizza delivery. Thomas might’ve been a homophobic religious zealot, but he still ultimately wanted Charlie to get better, even if it was through accepting Jesus. Even Mary, who has more than enough reasons to hate Charlie, is concerned for his health and begs him to go to the hospital. Finally, Ellie, whose signs of hatred are way more explicit than her signs of care, still has her moments, especially in the final scene where it becomes indisputable that she always did care about Charlie AND other people.

This brings me to-:

Ellie

Ellie absolutely loathes Charlie for what he did, and the film makes it clear that her anger against Charlie has unfortunately also extended to anger towards everyone around her, causing her to become highly antisocial, academically poor, and borderline sociopathic. For majority of the film, it’s apparent that the only way she knows how to respond to Charlie’s affectionate words or actions is through anger. She lashes out at him at every opportunity, she breaks his bird-feeding plate (since it represents something that Charlie actually took care of, unlike her). She also drugs him to sleep during this very section of the movie, although I think the film tries to imply that apart from her sheer vitriol, she also drugged him because she wanted to meet Thomas (she’d told him to come by at the same time the previous day).

However, even though it might seem like the cold, hard walls that she’s built are impossible to get through, we do see hints of cracks that begin to form as the film progresses. Firstly, she stays back at Charlie’s even though she didn’t HAVE to as per their deal, and deflects the subject when Thomas questions her about the same. Secondly, and this is a more subtle hint than the previous one, whenever Ellie berates Charlie, she makes it a point of directly looking at him. But, whenever Charlie advises her, apologizes to her, says something loving or humorous, or compliments her, she finds it hard to maintain eye contact, perhaps because she KNOWS she won’t be able to hold back her tears — something that is made crystal clear in the final scene, where she discovers that the essay that Charlie has preserved and cherished all these years is her own and, he knows it verbatim. 

This moment is especially more impactful for the audience because we, just like Ellie, also finally find out the identity of the author of that essay. Hence, every single prior scene, in which Charlie is either reading the essay or reciting it to himself, gets re-contextualized. We knew that this essay was really important to Charlie, but we didn’t know WHY that was the case, apart from him admiring its quality of writing. Rewatching the film KNOWING that Ellie wrote the essay makes it even more devastating, as we realize that perhaps the reason why he recites it to himself before sleeping (not knowing if he’ll wake up the next day) and asks people to read it to him when he’s having a heart attack, is not ONLY because it helps him recover, but also because his daughter’s essay is the last thing he wants to hear before he dies.

Seeing her father moments away from dying, the discovery of the essay, and Charlie’s one last impassioned expression of guilt, regret, apology, compliments, and love, finally causes the breakdown of Ellie’s hard, coarse exterior that she tried to maintain throughout the film, as she breaks into tears. She desperately urges Charlie to go to the hospital, hence jeopardizing the money that she would earlier claim served as her sole incentive for tolerating him. She believes, or tries to make herself believe, that Charlie can still be saved through surgery. But, as the imminence of his death begins to hit her, she realizes that she’s not strong enough to witness her father leaving her again, only this time more permanently. So, she decides to leave, only to be stopped by her father’s final wailing cry for help. At this point, all of her walls are down, and she is at her most vulnerable, emotional state. Which is why, for the first time in the entire film, she refers to Charlie as "Daddy", and fulfills his last wish by reading him her essay. While doing this, she steps towards Charlie, clearly contrasting her decision to taunt him for not being able to do the same earlier in the film. Even though it’s more probable that Charlie actually walking towards Ellie in his final moments was his hallucination, I think either way the scene is supposed to be symbolic of Charlie and Ellie getting closer to each other emotionally, hence fulfilling Charlie’s need of reconciliation. Which is why, we’re shown Charlie floating for a brief moment before passing away, as though a heavy weight, both literal and emotional, has been lifted from him.

On a side note, I appreciated the film’s attention to lighting when it came to illuminating Ellie’s face. In the beginning, when she’s at her most cold and abrasive, we see her mostly in dark blue light-:

But, as the film progresses and we start warming up to her character, she’s shown in more yellow shades of light-:

Finally, in the end, when she’s at her most caring, emotional self, she’s illuminated by bright yellow light directly from the sun-:

Even the side characters of the film have certain nuances about them which makes them feel more like real people and not a mere collection of words on a page —:

Mary

Mary, Charlie’s ex-wife, surprisingly gets a substantial amount of character work, even though she’s in only one scene of the film. She could’ve been easily portrayed as a vengeful mother who didn’t let Charlie see Ellie out of spite, but we fortunately get a more nuanced depiction. While she still harbors a lot of resentment towards Charlie, she’s also devastated upon learning about his morbidity. It is revealed that she initially didn’t let Charlie meet Ellie because she was afraid of how Charlie might judge her once he sees how Ellie has turned out to be, and later because she thought that Ellie was a downright threat  to Charlie’s life. 

Thomas

Thomas, who claims to be a New Life missionary, also gets a few interesting revelations. We know that all throughout the film his goal has been to help Charlie get better, but, his true background and the depth of his beliefs, are only revealed later. Watching his personality unfold was very interesting, as instead of just being a static, well-meaning, innocent Christian boy, we saw a man afraid of his past trying to help people in his own ways, even if that meant condemning who they are.

Dan

We can, and many viewers do, interpret Dan running away after seeing Charlie as him being disgusted by him. BUT, given the fact that he was shown to be a friendly, compassionate person earlier, who repeatedly asked Charlie if he was doing okay, I think it’s more interesting, and reasonable, to assume that maybe the reason why he ran away with a shocked expression was because he felt guilty for enabling his self destructive lifestyle. Either way, I believe it’s an impressive achievement that even a tertiary character like the pizza delivery guy got a considerable amount of character work despite having almost no screen time.

THEMES

Honesty

Almost all characters of the movie struggle with being honest with each other in some shape or form —:

• As explained earlier, Charlie often struggles with being his authentic self in front of people, and is dishonest with Liz and his students (who are too lazy to be honest themselves). He’s only really able to show himself to his students after they, motivated by Charlie’s frustrated post, write genuine things about their own lives. 

• Mary was dishonest with Charlie about Ellie’s well-being, and also when it came to her reasons for not letting him see Ellie.

• Thomas lies to everyone about his background, which is only revealed after Ellie probes it out of him. This forced honesty however, ultimately fetches him a positive outcome.

• Ellie is perhaps the most honest character in the movie, as she fearlessly speaks her mind and doesn’t hold back any punches. But, the film emphasizes that her blunt honesty originates more from a place of malice rather than virtue. This is why, Charlie believes that she’s forgotten about the amazing, compassionate, and caring person that she used to be. 

Redemption

The theme of “saving” people from their sins/predicaments, and getting on the path to redemption flows through most the film’s central characters —:

• Thomas devotedly believes redemption can be achieved by accepting Jesus.

• Liz doesn’t believe that anyone can save anyone, which makes sense for her character, because despite her efforts she could neither save her brother nor Charlie. 

• In his final days, Charlie is shown to be working for his own redemption with his daughter, as well as working for his daughter’s redemption in the future. He also regrets and blames himself for not being able to save Alan. 

• For majority of the film, Ellie is overtly portrayed as an irredeemable character, who doesn’t care about anyone, and doesn’t require anyone’s help at “getting better”. But, near the end, and especially in the final scene, the film kind of supports Charlie’s optimistic view towards her, as we see glimpses of light (literally as she enters the apartment), compassion and affection in her actions — something that I’ve elaborated on earlier in this review. It’s clear that the film wants us to conclude that she always did have goodness and redeemable qualities in heart, even if she had suppressed it deeply because of her trauma. 

Moby Dick and The Whale

The inclusion of references to Moby Dick was a very interesting and extremely appropriate choice, since many themes of the novel can be found in the film too, the primary one being exploring the self destructive behavior that manifests in people as a response to trauma. In the novel, Ishmael decides to seek a dangerous life of voyage on the sea to cope with the crippling depression he’s forced to face when on land. Ahab’s own self-destructive, obsessive pursuit of hunting Moby Dick is triggered after he loses his leg. 

Similarly, inThe Whale,  Charlie’s food addiction is triggered after he loses Alan. Alan’s own self-starvation was a response to his father banishing him from the church. Mary turned to alcohol to cope with the failure of her marriage and the struggles of raising a difficult child. Finally, Ellie’s violent, aggressive behavior with everyone around her, triggered by her father abandoning her AND her mother being an alcoholic, has caused her to fail academically and become an outcast among her peers.

Therefore, with these aspects in mind, I think it’s reasonable to assume that the title of the movie, beyond referring to Charlie’s size, is also a metaphor for the harmful tendencies we incorporate in our lives as an attempt to suppress the root causes of our suffering.

Ellie’s essay

The parallels that can be drawn from Ellie’s 8th grade essay to her real life are very interesting to explore. For example, in her essay, she mentions that the author is in a small seaside town sharing a bed with a man, and that they go to church, much like Charlie and Alan. Charlie could be both the author as well as Moby Dick, while Ellie herself could be Ahab. Just like Ahab, Ellie is extremely vengeful towards her whale - Charlie, and thinks that her aggression is going to make her feel better. But in reality, it wouldn’t help her at all, just like it didn’t help Ahab. 

Ellie writes that she felt the saddest of all when she realized that the author was trying to save the readers from his own sad story. It’s obvious why Charlie decided to repeat this particular section of the essay. It’s because he too felt as though he was trying save her from his own sad story — something that is hinted at earlier when he says the “Who would want ME to be part of their life?” line.

The last sentence of her essay is — “This book made me think about my own life, and then it made me feel glad for my-” 

Although we’re never specifically told what  8th grade Ellie felt glad for, the fact that upon reading that word, she has a moment of realization and smiles at Charlie, indicates that it could be “dad” or more appropriately, “whale”, which can be interpreted in different ways. It's important to note that kids at that age generally tend to overlook their parents' flaws, and often have a more positive outlook on life. So, maybe she was glad she made good memories with Charlie, like her day at the Oregon beach. 

Or, maybe she, as Ahab, had forgiven her whale in that moment, and was glad that her dad could find love and acceptance through Alan. Either way, the final word of her essay doesn't matter as much as the smiles that Charlie and Ellie exchange with each other in this scene, which represents not only Charlie's last wish of a reconnection being fulfilled, but also a breakthrough that paves the way for a more hopeful future for Ellie. 

The layered writing, the masterful acting, and the magnificent music in this scene are enough to make anyone tear up, which I admittedly did, for several minutes even after the credits had started to roll.

RATING-: 8/10