Movie Review: The Whale (2022)
Redemption—a White Whale?
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton
Rated R (language, drug use, sexual content)
(Spoilers ahead)
The Whale is a story about Charlie (Brendan Fraser), a morbidly obese English professor who, nearing his death, attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink). It is a story about relationships, loss, alienation, and personal authenticity. While it rejects Christianity, it is nonetheless a story about seeking redemption.
There is much to praise about the movie. Brendan Fraser offers a skillful performance as Charlie, capturing the character’s nuances, and rousing empathy. “I need to know that I have done one thing right with my life,” is a poignant line in itself, made all the more moving by Fraser. The rest of the cast, in harmony with Fraser, portray well the complexity of Charlie’s relationships. Charlie’s friendship with Liz (Hong Chau), the sister of his late gay lover, is particularly accurate of some real world relationships. Through their performance, one sees the dynamic between a self-destructive person and a loved one, with the latter often conflicted between genuinely caring for the former, and yet enabling his self-destructive behaviour—perhaps empathy being the source of both kinds of actions. One also sees the guilt and resentment that can come to be in such a relationship, when the self-destructive person refuses to get better, even though he has the means to do so and knows how terrible his present situation is.
Another strong point of the film is how it conveys Charlie’s sense of feeling trapped, unable to escape the miserable condition of his life. Charlie’s character is an obvious example of this. Being as large as he is, one can see Charlie as someone trapped inside his own body.1 The setting and cinematography also serve the theme well. Most of the story takes place in Charlie’s apartment, dim with windows obscured by blinds and drapes. Visitors passing by are seen as silhouettes. While some scenes take place outside of the apartment, most of these never go beyond the entrance. In one shot, where you see from Charlie’s point of view, looking away from the apartment, the world in the background is veiled by rain. There is also a brilliant wide shot of the whole apartment, when one discovers that Charlie lives on the second floor accessible only by stairs. One could even mention Aronofosky’s choice of a 1.33:1 aspect ratio over a typical wider format, making the screen size smaller, more confined, relative to the big Charlie. Yet for all these details, the film manages to avoid feeling too cramped or claustrophobic.
The weakest point of the movie, however, would have to be the conflicting message. On the one hand, Charlie champions authenticity, where this involves the free expression of one’s thoughts and desires, unrestrained by others. In an assignment to his students, for example, he has them write anything they want, instructing them only to “be honest.” He dotes on his daughter, praising her as “amazing” and “perfect,” despite her mischief. Most significantly is Charlie’s past romance with another man. Authenticity is supposed to be a very good thing in the story. People ought to be who they “really are.” Obstacles to such authenticity, such as the Christian religion, are seen as dubious, even harmful. In a tense confrontation with the teenage missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins), Charlie is bitter at the idea that a God would punish a man for falling in love with another. Liz even blames her former church for the death of her brother, Charlie’s former lover.
On the other hand, however, despite advocating for authenticity, it is not clear that authenticity is such a good thing. It is not as wonderful as the movie, or at least Charlie, seems to make it. The “honest” answers that Charlie receives from his students are banal. Charlie does not—or perhaps refuses to—acknowledge his daughter Ellie’s malicious behaviour. And in pursuing his romance with another man, Charlie abandoned his daughter and wife Mary (Samantha), which is one of the main reasons for the misery in all of their lives. Is authenticity worth it if it means dullness, delusion, and destruction?2 It makes one wonder whether some proponents of authenticity are, like Charlie, engaged in some kind of self-deception.
By the end of the movie, it is a bit unclear whether Charlie finally gets the redemption he longs for. Given his health throughout the story and in the final scene, I am inclined to think that the ending was merely a vision—albeit, an uplifting one—induced by his failing condition. It is not clear that the film offers any real hope, given its rejection of Christianity and its reticence on what might be considered transcendent.3 Is dying in peace in some hallucinatory state the best that one can ask for? It is tempting to think that some of Liz’s final words might be an accurate reflection of the outcome of the story: “I don’t think I believe anyone can save anyone.” Can we expect any redemption if this is true?
Now, despite my qualms regarding the film’s message, I do think that the movie is worth watching. It is well done as a movie (as far as I can tell), and I found it to be quite though-provoking. Even if you do not agree with the message, the movie serves as a good snapshot of Western society’s cult of authenticity as it is expressed, for example, in the LGBT+ movement. For further reading on the topic, I highly recommend Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, or the more concise Strange New World.
1 Apparently, the fat suit donned by Fraser was 300lbs—one could say that Fraser himself was trapped!
2 I think there is something better than authenticity (defined as the free expression of one’s inner thoughts, desires, “self”), but that is another discussion.
3 Or perhaps the ending is meant to portray some kind of Gnostic salvation, where Charlie is finally free to be himself, free from the cage of his body and from the earthly things that would otherwise constrain him. But again, it is not exactly clear.
What is better than authenticity?