REVIEW #249 The Whale (2022)

Charlie, an overweight recluse who is eating himself to death, spends his last few days desperately trying to reconnect with his daughter for his last shot at redemption.

The Whale is a beautifully written film that relies upon its ability to instigate a feeling of sadness and empathy in the audience, which it certainly achieves. It’s a rollercoaster of emotion, that constantly dragged me from one feeling to another. At first you have that overwhelming burst of empathy for Charlie and you’re almost angry for the way Ellie is treating him. But you soon come to a place of understanding for Sadie Sink’s character, as her fathers past mistakes begin to reveal themselves. The duologues between Fraser and Sink are outstanding, they play tug of war on the audiences heartstrings and it creates the most heartbreaking scenes. That being said, you can say that about all of the duologues in the film, each actor performs brilliantly and a special shout out for Hong Chau who I feel has flew under the radar amongst fans, she was amazing, as was Sadie Sink. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Brendan deserves that Oscar for best lead actor, what a performance and you could tell how much this role meant to him.

I loved Aronofski’s theatre influence, it’s clear that this was adapted from a play because the character interactions, the fixed setting, the direction… it was all reminiscent of a well produced theatre production and I really enjoyed that aspect of the movie. My only criticism stems from an area of nativity and ignorance of eating disorders because I understood that Charlie was overeating as a result of loss but I didn’t like the fact he almost ate like a caveman. Is that a symptom of the eating disorder? Like I said, I don’t know enough about it in order to know if it is or not but I didn’t really enjoy watching those scenes. Perhaps that was the directors intention, to make the audience uncomfortable every time Charlie ate… I’d also say that the fat suit looked a bit questionable at times but certainly not enough to distract you, so it’s only nit pick criticisms to be honest. Overall I absolutely loved it, it’ll make you cry and yet the positivity from the central protagonist can also put a huge smile on your face too, especially as he talks about how amazing his daughter is! Definitely get to the cinemas to watch this if you can.

Overall (9/10)

Thanks for reading.

Callan