The Whale – Film Review

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Synopsis: A recluse English professor makes an attempt to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter…

Review: Back in the early 90s and mid-2000s, there was an immensely popular actor who was beloved in Hollywood, particularly with his leading role in The Mummy franchise. He seemed like someone who would go on to enjoy a very prolific career in Hollywood. Unfortunately, a mixture of personal tragedies and a sexual assault accusation levelled against the then President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 2018, led to him reportedly being blacklisted from Hollywood. Now, after many years from the limelight, Brendan Fraser is making his long overdue comeback in the most heartbreaking way possible.

Charlie (Fraser) is an English professor who, due to a deeply personal tragedy, has allowed himself to be stricken and overwhelmed by the grief which has driven the rest of his family away. Consequently, to help him cope with the emotional torment of his situation, he has eaten to such an extent he has since become obese. He holds his classes online, with his camera off to avoid being seen by his students, which enables him to remain in his flat all the time hidden away from the rest of the world. He recognises in his condition, he may not have much time left in his life and so when his estranged daughter Ellie (Sink) shows up unexpectedly one day, he makes an attempt to reestablish a relationship with her.

Based on the play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter, there’s always a risk when a film is set in one singular location, it will find itself unable to escape the limitations of being confined to the same four walls and hold the audience’s attention. However, when you have actors putting in phenomenal performances, especially Fraser, the film can escape that confinement. Fraser’s performance is so powerful, with every word of dialogue, you can feel the raw pain and torment within him and how guilty he feels for driving his family away. Actors being buried under piles of make-up and or prosthetics can sometimes become a distraction where this becomes the singular focus and the performance is forgotten about, but this is emphatically not the case here. The process of grieving when we’ve lost someone we love affects everyone in different ways, but for Charlie, it has left such a devasting impact on him to the point where he has accepted his fate.

While Charlie is resigned to the inevitable, there are individuals in his life who do their utmost to convince him that life is worth living. The most prominent is Liz (Chau) who assists Charlie as a nurse with his medical needs and also serves as his main source of company. While she pleads, in vain, with Charlie to seek medical treatment, she remains unwavering in her commitment to care for Charlie despite her pleas falling on deaf ears. There is Charlie’s estranged daughter Ellie, who turns up on Charlie’s door out of the blue after a long time because she wants her father’s help with her studies. It is an extremely difficult role to pull off as she understandably harbours a lot of bitterness and resentment towards her father for the significant period he was absent from her life, but Sink rises to the challenge in magnificent style.

The decision to have the entire film in a 4:3 ratio is an inspired creative choice on the part of Aronofsky. as it encapsulates both Charlie’s confinement to the four walls of his flat and his refusal to venture outside of those walls. Characters in previous Aronofsky films have often found themselves either at their moment of triumph or in some cases at their utmost lowest ebb. Given the circumstances of its main character, The Whale is definitely the latter, but through the bleakness of which Charlie finds himself, come plenty of moments of touching humanity and emotional gravity. It will be a minor miracle if you’re not at least holding back the tears by the time the credits begin to roll.