The Whale

Hot off the heels of mother! I checked out Darren Aronofsky’s latest motion picture, The Whale. 

Now, it is heavy, no pun intended.  Last time out I talked/wrote/blogcasted about how Araonofsky doesn’t make the most complex choices in his movies and I like that.  My simpleton brain enjoys being pointed in the rough direction.  And guest what people?  He’s only gone and done it again.  Aronofsky has made a movie circulating around emotion and leans hard on that.  I realised the emotional beats were coming just by the score.  Oh, the music is playing, the dialogue is starting to reach its emotional peak.  I still got suckered in by it.  Especially at the end.

So a big deal (still not a pun) has been made around Brendan Fraser’s performance.  He had a standing ovation at Cannes he won a Critics Choice Award and a Golden Globe for it and he was nominated for an Academy Award.  I felt early on that he was doing a good job but, was it really worth the accolades?  Welp.  This changed in the third act.  He was great in it.  Now I do think that the writing was the significant element and not the delivery.  It's easy for a good actor to make good writing great.  Was he better than the part?  I think the movie limits me in thinking that he was not better than the part.  The obvious emotional manipulation(?) could take away from the performance a bit.  Maybe.  I think it's tough.  Fraser still did his best ever work.

Either way the movie is about the characters and they are written very well.  Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, an overweight recluse who tries to reconnect with his daughter, Ellie, played by Sadie Sink.  I’ve only seen Sadie Sink in Stranger Things and felt he was just one of the ensemble in that show.  Here I got to see that she is actually a talented actor.  Her diabolical daughter role had me tricked a number of times as she tricked and manipulated Thomas in the movie.  I thought she was going to have the redeeming character arc and she kind of did, but not in a clean cut type of way, but more of an ugly almost accidental type of way.  She tries to take down Thomas but the opposite occurs.

Early in the movie Charlie meets Thomas, a Christian missionary who actually saves Charlie from a heart attack right at the start of the movie.  This is where Aronofsky gets to explore his love of religious themes.  He loves a discussion of religion and there are plenty to get into here.

The movie does revolve around Charlie and his apartment.  Characters like Thomas and Ellie come and go.  His friend Liz, played by Hong Chau, comes and goes dishing out tough love and showing her love for Charlie.  Hong Chau does an excellent performance in this part showing disappointment and real distress when he won't get help even though he is able.

The only other characters are Mary, played by Samantha Morton, who is Ellie’s mother and only has one scene in the movie that kind of serves as the breaking point for Charlie.  He is such a nice and loving person that he only sees the best in others and will neglect himself to that end.  And the last character is actually my favourite… The pizza delivery man Dan.  He is off screen the entire movie and only interacts through a closed door.  But he shows real concern for Charlie .  I think he, somehow, understands Charlie's struggle and like Liz is worried.  We only see him once when Charlie comes out to collect his pizzas.

There is a discussion about whether or not this movie is fat shaming.  Now there are clear and deliberate acts of fat shaming from the likes of Ellie but as a whole I don’t think the movie is trying to do that.  I think The Whale is similar to Aronofsky’s other movie about addiction, Requiem For A Dream, especially the Ellen Burstyn story.  The movie does a lot of good things to show how Charlie is trying to fill an emptiness in his life regarding loved ones.  

Now the title, The Whale. It's easy to think that this is part of the fat shaming but I think it's different than that.  See, throughout the movie Charlie calms his heart rate by reading an essay about Moby Dick.  In the olden times books had multiple titles and when Herman Melville released it as “Moby Dick or The Whale”.  The essay is an interesting take on the book but i think the parallel of Captain Ahab and Charlie is the interesting thing.  See i think the movie is called The Whale because, like Ahab, Charlie has his white whale.  In his case, I think, it is his view of himself.  He sees everyone else’s qualities and good aspects.  He even sees them in his daughter who is, her mother says, evil.  But he does not see them in himself.  At the emotional peak he says “I need to know that I have done one thing right in my life!”  This is his white whale and like Ahab it does eventually take his life.

This movie is a good exploration of themes like family, love and the human condition.  It is very well written and acted.  The gloomily lit set reflects the solemn nature of the movie.  It's a rough watch but ultimately it is a good watch.