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"The Whale" is an abhorrent film, but it also features excellent performances.

It gawks at the grotesquerie of its central figure beneath the guise of sentimentality, but it also offers sharp exchanges between its characters that ring with bracing honesty.

It's the kind of film you should probably see if only to have an informed, thoughtful discussion about it, but it's also one you probably won't want to watch.

This aligns it with Darren Aronofsky's movies in general, which can often be a challenging sit. The director is notorious for putting his actors (and his audiences) through the wringer, whether it's Jennifer Connolly's drug addict in " Requiem for a Dream ," Mickey Rourke's aging athlete in " The Wrestler ," Natalie Portman's obsessed ballerina in " Black Swan ," or Jennifer Lawrence's besieged wife in "mother!" (For the record, I'm a fan of Aronofsky's work in general.)

But the difference between those films and "The Whale" is their intent, whether it's the splendor of their artistry or the thrill of their provocation. There's a verve to those movies, an unpredictability, an undeniable daring, and a virtuoso style. They feature images you've likely never seen before or since, but they'll undoubtedly stay with you afterward.

"The Whale" may initially feel gentler, but its main point seems to be sticking the camera in front of Brendan Fraser , encased in a fat suit that makes him appear to weigh 600 pounds, and asking us to wallow in his deterioration. In theory, we are meant to pity him or at least find sympathy for his physical and psychological plight by the film's conclusion. But in reality, the overall vibe is one of morbid fascination for this mountain of a man. Here he is, knocking over an end table as he struggles to get up from the couch; there he is, cramming candy bars in his mouth as he Googles "congestive heart failure." We can tsk-tsk all we like between our mouthfuls of popcorn and Junior Mints while watching Fraser's Charlie gobble greasy fried chicken straight from the bucket or inhale a giant meatball sub with such alacrity that he nearly chokes to death. The message "The Whale" sends us home with seems to be: Thank God that's not us.

In working from Samuel D. Hunter's script, based on Hunter's stage play, Aronofsky doesn't appear to be as interested in understanding these impulses and indulgences as much as pointing and staring at them. His depiction of Charlie's isolation within his squalid Idaho apartment includes a scene of him masturbating to gay porn with such gusto that he almost has a heart attack, a moment made of equal parts shock value and shame. But then, in a jarring shift, the tone eventually turns maudlin with Charlie's increasing martyrdom.

Within the extremes of this approach, Fraser brings more warmth and humanity to the role than he's afforded on the page. We hear his voice first; Charlie is a college writing professor who teaches his students online from behind the safety of a black square. And it's such a welcoming and resonant sound, full of decency and humor. Fraser's been away for a while, but his contradictions have always made him an engaging screen presence—the contrast of his imposing physique and playful spirit. He does so much with his eyes here to give us a glimpse into Charlie's sweet but tortured soul, and the subtlety he's able to convey goes a long way toward making "The Whale" tolerable.

But he's also saddled with a screenplay that spells out every emotion in ways that are so clunky as to be groan-inducing. At Charlie's most desperate, panicky moments, he soothes himself by reading or reciting a student's beloved essay on Moby Dick , which—in part—gives the film its title and will take on increasing significance. He describes the elusive white whale of Herman Melville's novel as he stands up, shirtless, and lumbers across the living room, down the hall, and toward the bedroom with a walker. At this moment, you're meant to marvel at the elaborate makeup and prosthetic work on display; you're more likely to roll your eyes at the writing.

"He thinks his life will be better if he can just kill this whale, but in reality, it won't help him at all," he intones in a painfully obvious bit of symbolism. "This book made me think about my own life," he adds as if we couldn't figure that out for ourselves.

A few visitors interrupt the loneliness of his days, chiefly Hong Chau as his nurse and longtime friend, Liz. She's deeply caring but also no-nonsense, providing a crucial spark to these otherwise dour proceedings. Aronofsky's longtime cinematographer, the brilliant Matthew Libatique , has lit Charlie's apartment in such a relentlessly dark and dim fashion to signify his sorrow that it's oppressive. Once you realize the entirety of the film will take place within these cramped confines, it sends a shiver of dread. And the choice to tell this story in the boxy, 1.33 aspect ratio further heightens its sense of dour claustrophobia.

But then "Stranger Things" star Sadie Sink arrives as Charlie's rebellious, estranged daughter, Ellie; her mom was married to Charlie before he came out as a gay man. While their first meeting in many years is laden with exposition about the pain and awkwardness of their time apart, the two eventually settle into an interesting, prickly rapport. Sink brings immediacy and accessibility to the role of the sullen but bright teenager, and her presence, like Chau's, improves "The Whale" considerably. Her casting is also spot-on in her resemblance to Fraser, especially in her expressive eyes.

The arrival of yet another visitor—an earnest, insistent church missionary played by Ty Simpkins —feels like a total contrivance, however. Allowing him inside the apartment repeatedly makes zero sense, even within the context that Charlie believes he's dying and wants to make amends. He even says to this sweet young man: "I'm not interested in being saved." And yet, the exchanges between Sink and Simpkins provide some much-needed life and emotional truth. The subplot about their unlikely friendship feels like something from a totally different movie and a much more interesting one.

Instead, Aronofsky insists on veering between cruelty and melodrama, with Fraser stuck in the middle, a curiosity on display.

Now playing in theaters.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Whale (2022)

Rated R for language, some drug use and sexual content.

117 minutes

Brendan Fraser as Charlie

Sadie Sink as Ellie

Hong Chau as Liz

Ty Simpkins as Thomas

Samantha Morton as Mary

Sathya Sridharan as Dan

Darren Aronofsky

Writer (based on the play by)

Samuel D. Hunter

Cinematographer

Matthew Libatique
Andrew Weisblum
Rob Simonsen

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‘The Whale’ Review: Body Issues

Brendan Fraser plays an obese writing instructor reckoning with grief and regret in Darren Aronofsky’s latest film.

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In a scene from the film, Brendan Fraser is seen from the shoulders up, wearing prosthetic makeup to portray the obese character Charlie.

By A.O. Scott

Charlie is a college writing instructor who never leaves his apartment. He conducts his classes online, disabling his laptop camera so the students can’t see him. The movie camera, guided by Darren Aronofsky and his go-to cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, also stays indoors most of the time. Occasionally you get an exterior view of the drab low-rise building where Charlie lives, or a breath of fresh air on the landing outside his front door. But these respites only emphasize a pervasive sense of confinement.

Based on a play by Samuel D. Hunter (who wrote the script), “The Whale” is an exercise in claustrophobia. Rather than open up a stage-bound text, as a less confident film director might, Aronofsky intensifies the stasis, the calamitous sense of stuckness that defines Charlie’s existence. Charlie is trapped — in his rooms, in a life that has run off the rails, and above all in his own body. He was always a big guy, he says, but after the suicide of his lover, his eating “just got out of control.” Now his blood pressure is spiking, his heart is failing, and the simple physical exertions of standing up and sitting down require enormous effort and mechanical assistance.

Charlie’s size is the movie’s governing symbol and principal special effect. Encased in prosthetic flesh, Brendan Fraser, who plays Charlie, gives a performance that is sometimes disarmingly graceful. He uses his voice and his big, sad eyes to convey a delicacy at odds with the character’s corporeal grossness. But nearly everything about Charlie — the sound of his breathing, the way he eats, moves and perspires — underlines his abjection, to an extent that starts to feel cruel and voyeuristic.

“The Whale” unfolds over the course of a week, during which Charlie receives a series of visits: from his friend and informal caretaker, Liz (Hong Chau); from Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a young missionary who wants to save his soul; from his estranged teenage daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), and embittered ex-wife, Mary (Samantha Morton). There is also a pizza delivery guy (Sathya Sridharan), and a bird that occasionally shows up outside Charlie’s window. I’m not an ornithologist, but my guidebook identifies it as a Common Western Metaphor.

Speaking of which, Charlie is not the only whale in “The Whale.” His most prized possession is a student paper on “Moby-Dick,” the authorship of which is revealed at the movie’s end. It’s a fine piece of naïve literary criticism — maybe the best writing in the movie — about how Ishmael’s troubles compelled the author to think about “my own life.”

Perhaps Charlie’s troubles are meant to have the same effect. He becomes the nodal point in a web of trauma and regret, variously the agent, victim and witness of someone else’s unhappiness. He left Mary when he fell in love with a male student, Alan, who was Liz’s brother and had been raised in the church that Thomas represents. Mary, a heavy drinker, has kept Charlie away from Ellie, who has grown into a seething adolescent.

All this drama bursts out in freshets of stagy verbiage and blubbering. The script overwhelms narrative logic while demanding extra credit for emotional honesty. But the working out of the various issues involves a lot of blame-shifting and ethical evasion. Everyone and no one is responsible; actions do and don’t have consequences. Real-world topics like sexuality, addiction and religious intolerance float around untethered to any credible sense of social reality. The moral that bubbles up through the shouting (and the strenuous nerve-pumping of Robert Simonsen’s score) is that people are incapable of not caring about one another.

Maybe? Herman Melville and Walt Whitman provide some literary ballast for this idea, but as an exploration of — and argument for — the power of human sympathy, “The Whale” is undone by simplistic psychologizing and intellectual fuzziness.

Aronofsky has a tendency to misjudge his own strengths as a filmmaker. He is a brilliant manipulator of moods and a formidable director of actors, specializing in characters fighting their way through anguish and delusion toward something like transcendence. Mickey Rourke did that in “The Wrestler,” Natalie Portman in “Black Swan,” Russell Crowe in “Noah” and Jennifer Lawrence in “Mother!” Fraser makes a bid to join their company — Chau is also excellent — but “The Whale,” like some of Aronofsky’s other projects, is swamped by its grand and vague ambitions. It’s overwrought and also strangely insubstantial.

The Whale Rated R for abjection. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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The Whale Reviews

Fraser keeps Charlie’s fully formed humanity at the forefront of The Whale, despite various filmmaking decisions that could flatten his character into a saccharine pity case.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2024

It’s Aronofsky’s most blunt and uninspired work yet— an indulgent and strident slice of misery porn that rides a wave of unearned emotion to its underwhelming conclusion.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

If I were to describe this film in one word, it would be melancholy; it is practically flawless, at least in my opinion, and conveys the notion that people are inherently kind...

Full Review | Sep 23, 2023

If you didn’t know that The Whale was based on a play, you’d work it out pretty quickly... The immediate distance that this initially creates soon evaporates, however, in no small part thanks to Fraser’s all-in performance.

Full Review | Sep 21, 2023

If it’s as sincere as it purports to be, this is one of the worst movies of recent years, and if it’s not — which is almost preferable — then it’s a landmark exercise in trolling.

Full Review | Aug 25, 2023

A morbidly obese man racked with self-loathing makes a desperate eleventh-hour attempt to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter in the overstuffed but worthwhile drama, The Whale.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Earns its place in the "most tearful films of the year" list as it moves slowly yet efficiently towards its overwhelmingly emotional ending, especially elevated by the most subtly powerful & irrefutably moving performance of Brendan Fraser's career.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 25, 2023

A riveting character study of one broken man that transcends compassion, love, pain/regret. A masterpiece Sadie Sink/Hong Chau should be nominated & Brendan Fraser might have turned in one of the best performances of all time

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

I just wished that the film overall was as strong as Brendan Fraser’s acting comeback.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 22, 2023

Charlie [is] played brilliantly by Brendan Fraser...

Full Review | Jun 2, 2023

It has a more or less decent preamble that is propelled by an organic performance from Brendan Fraser on his return, but its psychological marrow is locked into a basic routine of trivial conversations and a lack of substance. [Full reveiw in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Apr 19, 2023

A strangely hopeful story that manages to stay on the surface even as it seems to sink into mediocrity. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Mar 29, 2023

One of the most deplorable elements of The Whale is its near celebration of defeat and resignation. The decision by Charlie to eat himself to death is treated as a meaningful act of self-sacrifice. Why would this possibly be so?

Full Review | Mar 24, 2023

All the weight of the story (metaphorically and literally) is carried by its tragic protagonist — the ailing Charlie, whom Brendan Fraser portrays with such depth, nuance, and wit. Nothing in the film's text matches this commitment, and that's a problem.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 21, 2023

Two words - Brendan Fraser. He was born to play Charlie and his Oscar award is extremely well deserved.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 21, 2023

Chamber settings, by their nature, let the acting echo out and Fraser’s central performance speaks volumes about his character’s history.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 17, 2023

Though The Whale has captured the interest of the public, I can’t say that it’s earned. I hated this movie, but not for the reasons you may think.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 17, 2023

Aronofsky’s film of this joyless play was a hit, so I guess it touched something in the moviegoing public. It had to use a bodega claw to do it because it couldn’t get off the couch, but it touched them.

Full Review | Mar 16, 2023

Aronofsky uses The Whale for easy, unsightly, virtue-signaling.

Full Review | Mar 15, 2023

At times, it feels like they had a list of difficult themes they wanted to include, which makes for an uneven experience. But we also can't deny the power of Fraser's performance, which some would argue is superior to the film. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 15, 2023

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‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser Is Sly and Moving as a Morbidly Obese Man, but Darren Aronofsky’s Film Is Hampered by Its Contrivances

The director seamlessly adapts Samuel D. Hunter's play but can't transcend the play's problems.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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“The Whale” is based on a stageplay by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the script, and the entire film takes place in Charlie’s apartment, most of it unfolding in that seedy bookish living room. Aronofsky doesn’t necessarily “open up” the play, but working with the great cinematographer Matthew Libatique he doesn’t need to. Shot without flourishes, the movie has a plainspoken visual flow to it. And given what a sympathetic and fascinating character Fraser makes Charlie, we’re eager to settle in with him in that depressive lair, and to get to the bottom of the film’s inevitable two dramatic questions: How did Charlie get this way? And can he be saved?

In case there is any doubt he needs saving, “The Whale” quickly establishes that he’s an addict living a life of isolated misery and self-disgust, scarfing away his despair (at various points we see him going at a bucket of fried chicken, a drawer full of candy, and voluminous take-out pizzas from Gambino’s, all of which is rather sad to behold). Charlie teaches an expository writing seminar at an online college, doing it on Zoom, which looks very today (though the film, for no good reason, is set during the presidential primary season of 2016), with video images of the students surrounding a small black square at the center of the screen. That’s where Charlie should be; he tells the students his laptop camera isn’t working, which is his way of hiding his body and the shame he feels about it. But he’s a canny teacher who knows what good writing is, even if his lessons about structure and topic sentences fall on apathetic ears.

Charlie has a friend of sorts, Liz (Hong Chau), who happens to be a nurse, and when she comes over and learns that his blood pressure is in the 240/130 range, she declares it an emergency situation. He has congestive heart failure; with that kind of blood pressure, he’ll be dead in a week. But Charlie refuses to go the hospital, and will continue to do so. He’s got a handy excuse. With no health insurance, if he seeks medical care he’ll run up tens of thousands of dollars in bills. As Liz points out, it’s better to be in debt than dead. But Charlie’s resistance to healing himself bespeaks a deeper crisis. He doesn’t want help. If he dies (and that’s the film’s basic suspense), it will essentially be a suicide.

It’s hard not to notice that Liz, given how much she’s taking care of Charlie, has a spiky and rather abrasive personality. We think: Okay, that’s who she is. But a couple of other characters enter the movie — and when Ellie (Sadie Sink), Charlie’s 17-year-old daughter, shows up, we notice that she has a really spiky and abrasive personality. Does Charlie just happen to be surrounded by hellcats and cranks? Or is there something in Hunter’s dialogue that is simply, reflexively over-the-top in its theatrical hostility?

And what a rage it is! Sadie Sink, from “Stranger Things,” acts with a fire and directness that recalls the young Lindsay Lohan, but the volatile spitfire she’s playing is bitter — at her father, and at the world — in an absolutist way that rings absolutely false. Lots of teenagers are angry and alienated, but they’re not just angry and alienated. There are shades of vulnerability that come with being that age. We keep waiting for Ellie to show another side, to reflect the fact that the father she resents is still, on some level … her father.

“The Whale,” while it has a captivating character at its center, turns out to be equal parts sincerity and hokum. The movie carries us along, tethering the audience to Fraser’s intensely lived-in and touching performance, yet the more it goes on the more its drama is interlaced with nagging contrivances, like the whole issue of why this father and daughter were ever so separated from each other. We learn that after Charlie and Ellie’s mother, Mary (Samantha Morton), were divorced, Mary got full custody and cut Charlie off from Ellie. But they never stopped living in the same small town, and even single parents who don’t have custody are legally entitled to see their children. Charlie, we’re told, was eager to have kids; he lived with Ellie and her mother until the girl was eight. So why would he have just … let her go?

There’s one other major character, a lost young missionary for the New Life Church named Thomas, and though Ty Simpkins plays him appealingly, the way this cult-like church plays into the movie feels like one hard-to-swallow conceit too many. This matters a lot, because if we can’t totally buy what’s happening, we won’t be as moved by Charlie’s road to redemption. Near the end, there’s a very moving moment. It’s when Charlie is discussing the essay on “Moby Dick” he’s been reading pieces of throughout the film, and we learn where the essay comes from and why it means so much to him. If only the rest of the movie were that convincing! But most of “The Whale” simply isn’t as good as Brendan Fraser’s performance. For what he brings off, though, it deserves to be seen.

Reviewed at Venice Film Festival, Sept. 4, 2022. Running time: 117 MIN.

Production: An A24 release of a Protozoa Pictures production. Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Jeremy Dawson, Art Handel. Executive producers: Scott Franklin, Tyson Bidner.
Crew: Director: Darren Aronofsky. Screenplay: Samuel D. Hunter. Camera: Matthew Libatique. Editor: Andrew Weisblum. Music: Rob Simonsen.
With: Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Sathya Sridharan.

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‘the whale’ review: brendan fraser is heart-wrenching in darren aronofsky’s portrait of regret and deliverance.

Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins and Samantha Morton also appear in this chamber drama adapted by Samuel D. Hunter from his play about grief and salvation.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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Brendan Fraser Deserves an Oscar for ‘The Whale.’ He Also Deserves a Better Movie

By David Fear

Charlie is 600 lbs. This is the first thing you notice about him; this is the first thing you are meant to notice about him. He’s always been a big guy, he says, but he “let it get out of control.” On the Zooms in which Charlie teaches online English courses — he’s a professor — his voice is always emanating from a solid square of black, the video permanently disabled, the word “Instructor” the only visual his students associate with him.

But when we first see Charlie in The Whale , director Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter’s award-winning 2012 play, we get to observe all of him: a bulk of a man, his body bloated and swollen, sitting deep in the corner of his couch, masturbating furiously to online porn. Severe chest pains interrupt his endeavor. Only the arrival of a random stranger, who happens to find the apartment door unlocked, saves his life.

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Fraser is a dream collaborator in that respect, and yet The Whale seems hellbent on making you view Charlie as a grotesque. There’s something monstrous about the way it keeps framing him, how it seems to almost fetishize every roll of his flesh and put the sound of his greasy chomping on fried chicken so high in the sound mix. What this man is experiencing — a horrible sense of shame that’s metastasized into self-destruction — is not pretty. But the movie seems to revel a little too enthusiastically in its own ugliness. That doom-laden score by Rob Simonsen keeps rubbing the despair even deeper into your face. For every sunbeam of humanity Fraser lets shine through this soul, the film summons a half-dozen dark clouds to try and dampen it.

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‘The Whale’ review: Brendan Fraser delivers the best performance of his career

Movie review.

Charlie is dying.

Morbidly obese, the central character in “The Whale” is literally eating himself to death. Scarfing down candy bars from a desk drawer full of them. Devouring pizzas delivered to his door daily. Subsisting on bucket after bucket of fried chicken.

His heart is failing, but he refuses to seek medical attention to the despair of his only true friend, a woman named Liz (Hong Chau) who is his devoted caregiver.

He’s lonely. He’s guilt-ridden. He’s grief-stricken. He’s, frankly, suicidal. He knows exactly where he’s headed and is waiting for the not-too-distant day when his suffering will finally be at an end.

As played by Brendan Fraser in a startlingly authentic-looking full-body prosthetic fat suit, he’s a fascinating, complicated individual. For all his health issues and psychological problems, he is not without hope. That hope springs from his work as an online English teacher. He loves inspiring students. Via Zoom sessions, he encourages them to be analytical and self-revealing in their writing. He keeps his condition a secret from them, turning off his laptop’s camera so they can’t see him, while his intellect and caring nature come through loud and clear.

Fraser, distancing himself from his long-ago days of playing the light-comic likes of Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle, shifts emotional valences with lightning quickness as Charlie, now hopeful, now caring, now grieving, now desperate, in ways that are not jarring but rather seamless and revelatory of Charlie’s innermost dimensions. Under the direction of Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan,” “Requiem for a Dream”), working from a screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter, Fraser reaches deep within himself to give what is arguably the best performance of his career.

Aronofsky has surrounded him with actors who are similarly adroit at revealing unexpected facets of their characters. Chau’s caregiver Liz hectors Charlie to quit being so self-destructive, yet at the same time feeds him unhealthy sandwiches because that’s what he wants and she loves him so much she’s helpless to deny him what he craves.

A young missionary named Thomas played by Ty Simpkins shows up at the door, Bible in hand, eager to save Charlie’s soul. But there is something in his manner that suggests his grasp of his own faith is somehow less secure than it seems.

Charlie’s ex-wife Mary, played by Samantha Morton, arrives late in the picture, full of long-held bitterness over Charlie’s abandonment of her and their only child when he went off to live with another man. And yet in the course of her visit, she, almost in spite of herself, tenderly nestles close to him to listen to his laboring heartbeat.

The most searing performance is given by Sadie Sink in the role of Charlie’s teenage daughter Ellie. She blows into his apartment, a whirlwind of rage made so by Charlie’s having abandoned her and her mother for his male lover when she was 8. Now 17 and failing in school, she comes to his home to unload her white-hot resentments on him and at the same time to angrily and reluctantly accept his offer to help her write her school essays. The main essay is on the topic of “Moby-Dick,” the source of the title rather than a reference to Charlie’s girth, though that nonetheless is implied.

Her mother calls Ellie evil, and she is as shown by hurtful things she does to her father. But wounded as she is, Charlie, loving and compassionate, wants to help her in any way he can, scholastically and financially.

Hunter’s screenplay is adapted from his 2012 stage play, and Aronofsky’s decision to confine the picture to Charlie’s cluttered apartment reveals its stage-bound roots. The disordered living space reflects the chaotic state of Charlie’s mind. The place is an arena where all the characters’ warring emotions are concentrated to an almost unbearable degree.

The fat suit is in a sense a distraction in that you wonder how Fraser was able to act within it. But the fact that he does so and so effectively makes “The Whale” a searing, moving experience.

W ith Brendan Fraser, Hong Chau, Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton. Directed by Darren Aronofsky from a screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter. 117 minutes. Rated R for language, some drug use and sexual content. Opens Dec. 21 at multiple theaters.

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‘The Whale’ Review: Brendan Fraser Is Towering in a Lesser Darren Aronofsky

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Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. A24 releases the film in theaters on Friday, December 9.

There are two things to be a little worried about and one thing to be extremely excited about when coming into “ The Whale .”

The first element of concern is director Darren Aronofsky, who admittedly has made exceptional films like “Requiem for a Dream” and “Pi” and gotten career-defining performances out of his leads in “Black Swan” and “The Wrestler.” But his last two films, “Noah” and “mother!,” succumbed to all his worst instincts, creating bloated self-indulgent nonsense that was actively painful to sit through.

In “The Whale,” also slightly worrying is the use of “fat suits,” which contemporary audiences are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with. Much of the use of these so-called fat suits has been to create fat-phobic jokes, particularly by turning thin movie stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, and Courteney Cox into walking punchlines. Even when the usage itself is fat-phobic, in the case of Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp in “American Crime Story,” there’s also the consideration that heavier actors who often struggle to get roles aren’t getting the opportunity to play fat parts.

However, most of those coming to “The Whale” may brim with goodwill because of Brendan Fraser. Having suffered well-documented injury and abuse from the film industry, Fraser retreated from Hollywood, leaving behind heartbroken Gen X-ers and millennials who adored him in a wide range of roles, from delightful himbos to tragic underdogs and wise-cracking action heroes. After a few tentative steps back into the spotlight in small roles and television appearances, the comeback was further solidified when he was cast in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Steven Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move.” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” makes it official: The Brendanaissance is on!

Fraser gives a towering performance, in every sense of the word, as Charlie, a 600-pound man who teaches writing courses online and never leaves his apartment. Despite the best efforts of his nurse best friend Liz (Hong Chau), Charlie refuses to go to the hospital, even though he is displaying signs of congestive heart failure and has a blood pressure of 238/134. Charlie has never recovered since the death of Alan, the “love of his life,” a few years prior and has spent the time since on his sofa, slowly eating himself to death. This final week almost operates like an introvert’s companion piece to “Leaving Las Vegas,” a similar journey in self-destruction, but here with a quiet commitment to loneliness. The action of “The Whale,” true to the play it’s based on, never leaves Charlie’s small apartment.

The fat suit is what it is. There are plenty of valid reasons to think this film has unacceptably fat-phobic undertones and positions, particularly a scene where it seems to suggest a person could overdose on mayonnaise like it’s uncut heroin. And many could be triggered by a central fat character being openly called “disgusting” throughout. But in terms of practical effects, it’s hard to not be impressed by the prosthetics, particularly around Fraser’s face, as they do appear reasonably realistic. He’s able to give a funny and devastating performance seemingly without hindrance.

Charlie knows that he’s only got a few more days, so he decides to reconnect with his estranged daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink), whom he left behind when he fell in love with Alan eight years ago. She’s now 16 and flunking high school. The pair’s only contact has been through child-support payment and sporadic updates via her mother. Ellie is a nightmarish caricature of a teenage girl. Sink unwisely keeps her performance at a 10 in every moment, which is cumulatively grating. Respite comes when her mother, played by the always-excellent Samantha Morton, comes to see Charlie about their troubled daughter landing the film’s biggest laugh in a well-timed “Charlie! She’s evil!”

Despite the hilarity of that cutting assessment, “The Whale” actually works best at its least cruel. When Fraser gets to show off Charlie’s wit in a back-and-forth with a persistent and hypocrite missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins), gently smiling as he reassures him, “I’ve read the Bible. I thought it was devastating.” Or indeed when Liz jokingly threatens to stab him, and he gives her a hug and tenderly makes her laugh by whispering, “What’s that gonna do? My internal organs are two feet in at least.” When his confrontation with Morton is so filled with mutual compassion, it’s hard to believe that this is from the same film that framed Charlie slovenly eating a chicken wing with such brazen disgust.

Without Brendan Fraser’s innate charm and ability to project gentle sadness through the slightest flicker of his huge blue eyes, “The Whale” wouldn’t have that much else going for it. Faultless performances from Morton and Chau illuminate complicated relationships with Charlie, a man at once lovable, frustrating, and dishonest.

Aronofsky’s direction is cautious but brings a cinematic flair, which plays into Charlie’s claustrophobic existence rather than just feeling burdened by the story’s origin on the stage (where it is confined to a single set). Samuel D. Hunter’s script has elements to recommend it. The “Moby Dick” allusions, which seem onerous in the film’s beginning, build to something moving and, in the film’s final moments, even profound.

For Fraser, “The Whale” is a confident leap forward into the movie-star status that he rightfully deserves. For the normally more muted Venice audience who typically scramble for the exit the moment the film ends, just the sight of Fraser’s name at the end credits made the crowd turn back to the screen to cheer and applaud the actor’s triumphant return. If that rapturous applause carries on throughout awards season, that may prove the most wonderful and moving moment of this whale’s journey.

“The Whale” premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. A24 will release it in theatres on Friday, December 9.

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The whale review: aronofsky's drama showcases a stunning performance by fraser [tiff].

Powered by Fraser's performance, the film has moments of gentle vulnerability & contemplation in its exploration of guilt, redemption, grief & trauma.

The Whale is being recognized for Brendan Fraser’s tremendous performance. And the actor, whose career was paused for a long while, deserves the accolades he is receiving for his turn as Charlie. Director Darren Aronofsky ’s latest feature, from a screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter, is powerful because of Fraser’s central performance. It’s the key to the movie’s success. While the film is determined to live in the pain felt and lobbed at its main character, there are moments of gentle vulnerability and contemplation in its exploration of guilt, redemption, grief, and trauma.

Charlie (Fraser) is a 600-pound English professor who is suffering from congestive heart failure. He lives alone and is primarily immobile, though he is visited often by his friend Liv (Hong Chau), who is also a nurse, and, frustratingly, by an annoyingly persistent missionary, Thomas (Ty Simpkins), who is trying to save Charlie. When Charlie is seized by pain, he reads from an essay about Moby-Dick to make him calm down and feel better. Knowing that he is reaching the end of his life, however, Charlie reaches out to his estranged daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), in the hopes of mending their relationship before he dies.

Related: The Whale Movie News & Updates: Everything We Know

Fraser’s performance is magnetic and nuanced. He imbues Charlie with so much optimism, kindness, and empathy. Whereas most of the characters, save for Liz, are pretty terrible and cruel, Charlie is not. The film acknowledges that he has been through a lot in his life. He lost the love of his life, he wasn’t able to be there for his daughter in the way he wanted to, and so on. Despite all the hardships, Charlie’s regrets and sadness don’t overcome his need to find pockets of light in an otherwise tragic situation. The Whale portrays Charlie through an empathetic lens. The story explores his character enough to understand him and his journey, from where he was to where his life ultimately led him. Other characters offer their sympathy and want to help, but it’s an instance where they themselves are lost and lashing out at someone who seems like an easy enough target. Charlie, however he is feeling, doesn’t take the bait most of the time.

The Whale is a poignant tale of grief, regret, and redemption. It sees Charlie looking back on his life — the joys and the missteps along the way — as death nears, but it also contemplates religion, sexuality, and parenthood. The film is bolstered by a riveting performance by Brendan Fraser , who portrays Charlie’s every emotion with sincerity and sensitivity. His performance is grounded and honest, beautiful in the way the actor deepens and humanizes Charlie. Without Fraser, The Whale wouldn’t be what it is, especially as aspects of the script are surface-level at best and unnecessarily melodramatic at worst. Still, Charlie’s journey, his desire to love and be loved, evokes a tender, compassionate emotional reaction. After all that he’s been through, the traumas he’s experienced, and shortcomings as a father, Charlie wants only to look upon the world and his life with bright, hopeful eyes and see the beauty in it. What Fraser manages to pull off in his performance is lovely, and it’s one of the strongest, most heartening aspects of the film.

Aronofsky’s film is not without its pitfalls. There’s a lot of verbal abuse thrown at Charlie, and daughter Ellie is especially abhorrent in her treatment of him. The cruelty in some of the characters’ actions and words can get excessive, making for a painful watch at times. This is especially true when Aronofsky’s direction showcases Charlie in a horrific light, one that is meant to disgust viewers instead of reaching for the empathy that is offered in other scenes. It’s as though the filmmakers wanted to subject Charlie to the worst of the worst before the film’s ending, and it’s this seeming desire to cause unending pain for the lead that might turn viewers off.

While The Whale is never dull, its over-the-top theatrical staging turns certain elements of the script into an aggressive melodrama that doesn’t always work. Character dialogue — save for Hong Chau as Liz, who brings equal parts heart and frustration to her role — reaches for excess in parts when thoughtful consideration would have sufficed. The Whale is nonetheless memorable, if one is able to sit through Charlie’s pain, because of its handling of regret, guilt, and grief. Though it often offers surface-level readings about religion and father-daughter relationships, in particular, the film is worth the watch for Fraser’s performance alone.

The Whale had its premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11. The film releases in theaters on December 9. It is 117 minutes long and is not yet rated.

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The Whale review: Brendan Fraser shines in a overwrought, underbaked drama

The actor is better than director Darren Aronfosky's stagey adaptation.

In every awards season, there are certain movies whose heat index seems to rise almost solely because of a central performance: actors so indelible in the part they transcend the flaws and missteps of the film formed around them. (Renée Zellweger in Judy was one a few years ago, or Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody ; both won Oscars.) Brendan Fraser 's astonishing turn in The Whale often feels like that to the n th degree: a tender, modest, and momentously human piece of work plonked in the midst of a drama so masochistically stilted and stagey it often feels less like a movie than an endurance test, or even worse, a parody.

The staginess, to be fair, is at least partly because it was in fact a play, one that director Darren Aronofsky spent the last decade trying to bring to the screen (the playwright, Samuel D. Hunter, also penned the adaptation). Why the man who helmed Black Swan , The Wrestler , and Requiem for a Dream would find a bleak psychological drama about deeply broken people appealing is not a mystery; what he found irresistible here though, is less easy to see. Fraser's Charlie, in the opening scene, is just a voice inside a black Zoom screen. That's because he teaches remotely at an online college, but his excuse of a broken laptop camera is a lie: The truth is he's morbidly obese, so large that he can't leave his shabby apartment or even stand up without a walker. He can just about manage to bathe and feed himself, but other activities (masturbation, laughing) leave him too clammy and winded to breathe.

There's a gadget for nearly every physical thing he can't do on his own — handles and pulleys in the shower, a special seat in the bathroom, even a little clawed picker-upper for whatever he might drop on the floor. And a friend named Liz ( Watchmen 's Hong Chau ) comes faithfully every day to check his vitals and bring him groceries. Liz is also a nurse, and she keeps telling him plainly that he's dying. But she's often interrupted by a knock at the door: First an earnest young missionary (Ty Simpkins) named Thomas hoping to spread the good word, and later, Ellie ( Stranger Things ' Sadie Sink), his estranged teenage daughter whose only words for him, primarily, are sneered f-bombs. Ellie, hissing and venomous, hates him because he left her mother ( Samantha Morton ) years ago for another man, but mainly she hates everything.

Aside from a single brief flashback, the action, such as it is, is confined entirely to Charlie's drab apartment and the small roundelay of guests who steadily come through to drop chunks of story exposition or settle scores. Fraser — encased in elaborate prosthetics that Aronfosky revels in shooting like a Caravaggio, all shadows and moody, milky light — welcomes them, down to the missionary kid. Charlie knows that he's killing himself and he knows why, but there's hardly any complaint or self-pity; instead he's emotionally generous almost to a fault, a man still eager to spread his love of Walt Whitman and Moby Dick and only connect, even if his efforts are met with mockery or disgust.

He and Chau, who brings a bright acidity and affection to Liz, often seem to be drawing from a different well than their castmates. But all the actors are left to mine their own layers in characters who have only the scantest backstories and broad traits: Hellish Teenager, Troubled Soul, Man Too Big to Live. Those dynamics may have played out better on stage, where a certain kind of bold underlining serves a live audience. Here it often feels clumsy and maddeningly inconsistent, stranding Fraser in a melodrama undeserving of his lovely, unshowy performance. Whatever he wins for The Whale — and early prizes have already come — he deserves. The rest is just chum. Grade: C

‘The Whale’ Review: May the “Brenaissance” Continue Beyond Darren Aronofsky's Film

'The Whale' does not engage outside of the known narrative of the actor in the film — it’s Brendan Fraser's comeback!

This review was originally part of our 2022 Venice Film Festival coverage .

Brendan Fraser was one of the biggest movie stars for a solid decade. His disappearance was sudden, but it perhaps didn’t register because he was a different type of movie star. He was likable. There was no method acting, bad boy drama. And the movies that made him famous were easily likable, too, without being arthouse favorites. Attentions drift to headline makers and new thunderbolts who balanced complicated fare with blockbusters.

The Whale is Fraser’s first leading role in a theatrical movie in a decade. It’s directed by Darren Aronofsky and has been placed at various film festivals by the biggest indie label of modern times, A24. That’s what the business likes to call a comeback vehicle. And Oscar? They love a comeback story. And Fraser’s comeback doesn’t come from working back through addiction or bad behavior on set it comes from self-care after a retreat inward. The Whale is ultimately about trying to provide the tools of self-care to someone else. People can’t be saved by others. They must save themselves, but they can be helped by others. Therein lies part of the problem of The Whale , the main character is not a vessel for his own journey but for a secondary character, and, by extension, the audience.

Fraser plays Charlie, an English teacher living with extreme obesity. He conducts online lectures with his camera off. He has a set routine, which includes regular visits from his caretaker, who has ties to his past ( Hong Chau ), and Dan, the pizza delivery guy who follows the regular instructions of delivery — leave on the ledge, money is in the mailbox. His routine is disturbed by two young people. An unwanted visitor and a desired visitor. The first is a missionary ( Ty Simpkins ) who knocks on the door the moment that Charlie is close to suffering a heart attack while masturbating to pornography. The young New Lifer decides it’s his mission to check in regularly on the state of Charlie’s soul—before his inevitable death. The other is Charlie’s estranged daughter ( Sadie Sink ), whom he hasn’t seen in eight years and hopes to reconnect with before his inevitable death.

RELATED: Brendan Fraser Explains How 'The Whale' Impacted His Priorities When Choosing New Projects

The estranged daughter story, of course, sounds very similar to Aronofsky’s The Wrestler . And though that tangent of The Wrestler is the weakest angle in that film it does expose who The Wrestler works better than The Whale . The Wrestler had a world to explore. There, it was professional wrestling many rungs down from what’s on television; local fare, low paying, with codes to protect each other but serious bodily harm is a constant threat.

The Whale not only has no outside world and, being contained to one setting, all the characters arrive to make declarations. Single-setting films can definitely feel cinematic and bigger than the location due to well-written characters. But the characters in The Whale only speak direct wants, needs, and desires every moment they are on screen. It does not feel organic or real.

The best moment is when Sink’s mother arrives, questioning the contact that was made because she has full custody (Charlie left the family because he was in love with a man; though blissful for a time, it ended in tragedy). It’s a single scene between Samantha Morton and Fraser. It’s the best scene in the movie because it’s the least predictable. There’s time to reflect, to pause in a doorway to make an offering. And the area to explode through years of shared shattered expectations. Morton, too, was more of a mainstay in the early 2000s and has faded into lesser roles. Fraser’s best emotional acting is opposite her. There’s a flicker of a long faded connection. Outside of this scene, it’s primarily a parade of battling testimonies from the two younger characters, with Chau there to calm down an overbearing musical score.

Aronofsky, too, does seem to amplify Fraser’s manipulated body with some questionable shots. Not quite body-shaming or disgust, but they do have a carnival quality of step right up, folks! See the Whale!! (Reminder: the character is physically introduced through masturbation which signals the desire to shock with his body, right from the get, something opposite of the tear-drenched ending and partially why the ending doesn’t feel earned to me). This could be due to the single-location setting, with the only place for Aronofsky to provide visual flair, but it runs counter to an attempt at empathy. Instead, it feels like gawking.

The Whale did not move me because most of the character interactions announced themselves loudly and with increasing frequency. It is inorganic, gimmicky, manipulative, and its lessons are simplistic. As a character, Charlie remains mostly a body. He has a kindness to him, but this role is mostly to react to the wants and needs of others. The Whale does not engage outside of the known narrative of the actor in the film — it’s his comeback! Despite what the Internet might be broadcasting, it is possible to be happy for a Brendan Fraser “Brenaissance” and still think this is closed-circuit claptrap.

The Whale is now playing in theaters.

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Inside Darren Aronofsky’s messy movie The Whale is something wise about religious trauma

The Whale is more than the movie where Brendan Fraser wears a fat suit.

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It’s no wonder Darren Aronofsky wanted to adapt The Whale , Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 play, for the big screen. It feels like it originated in the same brain that made Noah , The Wrestler, and Mother! : a story about regret and redemption, probing the spirit-body connection and drawing on biblical and literary myth.

So he got Hunter to write the screenplay and Brendan Fraser, who’s long been out of the public eye, to star. Fraser delivers a brilliant, gutting performance as Charlie, an online college professor who, out of great grief, has developed an eating disorder that has left him immobilized. He can’t leave his home; he can barely leave the couch, and he keeps the camera off when he teaches, afraid of his students’ gaze.

Charlie lost his partner Alan some years ago, and as The Whale progresses, we slowly realize his grief response of binge-eating is an inversion of the eating disorder that killed Alan. His late partner’s sister Liz (Hong Chau) is his closest friend, stopping by his apartment every day to check on him and bring him groceries. She works at a hospital, so she checks his slowly deteriorating health as well, and by the time the movie starts he’s showing clear signs of congestive heart failure. He’ll be dead by the end of the week if he doesn’t seek medical attention, and that’s the one thing he refuses to do.

At the start of the film, a young missionary named Thomas (Ty Simpkins) knocks on Charlie’s door, wishing to evangelize Charlie, who kindly informs him that he knows the Bible inside and out. He’s not the only unexpected guest: Soon, Ellie (Sadie Sink) shows up, to Charlie’s great surprise; she’s his teenage daughter, sullen and rebellious and about to be kicked out of school, and he hasn’t really seen her since he and her mother split up years earlier. Her arrival seems like a moment of redemption. Charlie feels he’s messed up everything in his life, but maybe now, in his final days, he can do something right, and save himself.

The Whale is set in a very specific place: Moscow, Idaho, a city whose significance might not hit everyone the same way. Set along the state’s northern border with Washington, it’s a home both to a sizable population of Mormons and to a burgeoning movement of Christian Reconstructionists , an evangelical movement that embraces the idea, in essence, that biblical law ought to be the law of modern America. If you’ve been in conservative Christian circles, you’ve likely heard of the ringleader, Douglas Wilson, pastor of a church in Moscow, most recently famous for being blurbed on the back cover of a book about Christian nationalism published by the right-wing site Gab.

All that’s worth noting because Hunter (with, presumably, Aronofsky’s input) has updated his Obama-era play to be set during the 2016 GOP presidential primaries in Idaho. (In the background, on Charlie’s TV, we can hear Ted Cruz winning over Donald Trump by a sizable margin.) The characters don’t engage in explicit political commentary, but Hunter made another key update — changing the young missionary Thomas from Mormon to evangelical, a member of what sounds like a fairly typical congregation in town called New Life. That church and its teachings, we’re meant to understand, are part of (or perhaps the cause of) a bigger apocalyptic moment in American history.

That’s the backdrop of The Whale , but the real apocalypse is happening at Charlie’s house, at least if we take “apocalypse” to mean a moment of revelation. We know — everyone knows — that these are the last days of Charlie’s life. It’s raining continually outside, like a flood is coming. Charlie is obsessed with an essay he keeps reading about Moby-Dick , an apocalyptic book if there ever was one, about a man with an obsession and a death wish. There’s an atmosphere of dread, both of what’s about to happen in Charlie’s house and what’s going on beyond its walls.

As a story, The Whale is compelling. As a film, The Whale is a tad shakier. First there’s the obvious problem of putting Charlie, whose body size is viewed with repulsion by many of the film’s characters, on screen to be looked at in a culture beholden to rampant fatphobia that tends to denigrate human dignity. The distinction between a person whose body is large and a person whose body is large and failing because they’re trying to end their own life is lost on many people, and undoubtedly those people will be in the audience. The peculiar vitriol reserved for the latter, out of proportion to all kinds of other ways to harm oneself, is a pestilence, and that’s not even counting the belief that it’s okay to judge and comment upon another person’s body shape.

Worse, there are times when it’s not clear the filmmakers know the difference, particularly a sequence in which Charlie’s binging behavior is rendered with the distinctive air of a monster movie. You can’t control an audience’s reaction to a character, but you can steer it, and The Whale doesn’t always do the work. And there are some other issues, too: The score feels manipulative at times, and Sink’s performance feels curiously one-note, overwrought and hysterical, particularly next to Fraser.

Yet there is more to The Whale , which is also genuinely moving. Following the movie’s Toronto Film Festival premiere, Hunter spoke about how, growing up as a gay kid in Moscow, Idaho, he turned to food to self-medicate the loathing he learned to feel for himself, and experienced some of what Charlie experiences. This is what The Whale gets exactly right: the ways that fundamentalist religion and other legalistic cultures teach adherents to hate those whose bodies don’t fit a prescribed mold — especially themselves. That can manifest in many ways, but a common one is eating disorders, which look different on different people and garner a range of reactions, but come from the same place. I grew up in a very conservative evangelical community. I experienced this judgment too. It is visceral and real and deadly.

The other matter The Whale understands keenly is that our response to this pressure is simply to try to save one another, or ourselves. Charlie laments that he couldn’t save Alan. Liz wants to save Charlie. Ellie wants saving both desperately and not at all. And Thomas has salvation mixed up in his head: by trying to force salvation on Charlie, he’s trying to save himself. It’s Liz who finally recognizes that nobody can save anyone — that trying to do so may mean you stop seeing them as human.

Which suggests that the whale of the title may also have something to do with the story of Jonah in the Bible who, in a famous Sunday school story, ended up in the belly of one. After God asked him to preach to a city of wicked people, Nineveh, he ran away rather than minister to them, only to find himself inside the giant creature. When he escaped, yielded, and finally made it to Nineveh, he discovered that the people listened and repented. Infuriated, he yelled at God for showing mercy; God more or less told him to shut up and let God decide who gets saved. It’s none of his business. His job is to live.

And in its enigmatic ending, I think, The Whale suggests the same. We try to save one another, and we fail, because we cannot help but fail. Every one of us fails. But something in the world is still powered on the energy of the love we try to have. At the end, that might be what matters most.

The Whale premiered at the Venice Film Festival and played at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opens in theaters on December 9, 2022.

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Compassionate, mature look at living with severe obesity.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Thoughtful dialogue and discussions around love, l

Charlie is a smart, positive-thinking man who does

Movie approaches Charlie's experiences with obesit

Dialogue describing a horrible death (a bloated bo

A character masturbates, with his hand underneath

Language includes "f--k," "bulls--t," "s--t," "a--

Various snack foods and sodas on display: Pepsi, 3

Teen vaping and smoking pot. A main character smok

Positive Messages

Thoughtful dialogue and discussions around love, literature, truth, and faith. Movie is also about dangers of pre-judging people. Promotes compassion.

Positive Role Models

Charlie is a smart, positive-thinking man who does everything he can to support his daughter, but he also has some major weaknesses. He lies to his students and keeps a big secret from his best friend, one that ends up hurting her. And he's forever apologizing for things, revealing a lack of confidence. In one sequence, after hearing bad news, he binge-eats and vomits. Liz, a nurse and Charlie's best friend, is selfless in her devotion to him, though she's often frustrated by him and sometimes even teases him. Some characters say cruel things about someone being overweight.

Diverse Representations

Movie approaches Charlie's experiences with obesity from a sympathetic place. He's also gay and mourning the loss of his true love. But the movie frames fatness -- and queerness -- as something shocking that needs to be "humanized" in the first place. Another major character is a strong, complex Asian woman (Vietnamese actor Hong Chau). Charlie's daughter, Ellie, is very smart, although she's also quite difficult and likes to make trouble; her mother is also a smart, three-dimensional woman. A South Asian supporting character shows kindness to Charlie. The only other character is Thomas, a White male missionary. Cruel language about a person being fat is heard.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Dialogue describing a horrible death (a bloated body washes up on shore, etc.). Main character frequently in pain. Main character chokes on food. Binge-eating and vomiting. Violent dialogue about death, stabbing, rape, etc.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A character masturbates, with his hand underneath sweatpants. A pornographic video plays on a laptop, with one person kissing and thrusting behind another. (No graphic nudity shown.) Charlie is shown shirtless in the shower. Strong sex-related dialogue.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes "f--k," "bulls--t," "s--t," "a--hole," "f--got," "retarded," "goddamn," "bitch," "hell," "idiot," "shut up," "stupid," "penis," "oh my God." "Jesus" and "oh Christ" as exclamations.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Various snack foods and sodas on display: Pepsi, 3 Musketeers chocolate bar, Dr. Pepper, etc. Mentions of Walmart.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teen vaping and smoking pot. A main character smokes cigarettes regularly. Dialogue about teen smoking too much pot. Character drugged with Ambien. Dialogue about someone who drinks frequently. Dialogue about college students drinking alcohol.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Whale is a drama about a man ( Brendan Fraser ) who's living with severe obesity and trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter ( Sadie Sink ). Directed by Darren Aronofsky , it's a compassionate movie with mature, complex themes. Violence is described in dialogue, and there's some unsettling imagery of things like binge-eating, vomiting, choking, etc. A man is shown masturbating (his hand is down his pants) and watching a pornographic video (one person kisses and thrusts behind another). The main character is also seen shirtless in the shower, and there's some strong sex-related dialogue. Language includes several uses of "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," and more. Teens smoke pot and vape, a character is drugged with Ambien, and there's dialogue about smoking too much pot and drinking too much alcohol. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (6)
Kids say (7)

Based on 6 parent reviews

Not worth it. Don’t understand why it’s getting awards

“the truth will set you free “, what's the story.

In THE WHALE, Charlie ( Brendan Fraser ) teaches English classes online while living with severe obesity. He pretends that his laptop camera is broken so that his students can't see him. He never leaves his apartment, ordering all of his food delivered and getting occasional visits and care from his friend Liz ( Hong Chau ), a nurse. When Charlie learns that his blood pressure is potentially lethally high, he refuses to go to the hospital, instead devoting his energy to reconnecting with his brilliant, estranged, and deeply troubled teen daughter, Ellie ( Sadie Sink ). Meanwhile, a young missionary, Thomas (Ty Simpkins), happens upon Charlie and decides that he wants to help save his soul.

Is It Any Good?

Like Darren Aronofsky 's other movies, this dark drama doesn't shy away from the realities of its main character's situation, but what lingers are its deep wells of compassion. The Whale launches with Charlie's masturbation being interrupted by crippling chest pains. This initially casts him in a pathetic light, but as the story progresses over the course of a week, viewers begin to see who Charlie really is: loving, intelligent, sensitive, and an undying optimist.

Fraser's work is unfailingly powerful, Charlie's bright eyes consistently gleaming with hope. Playing opposite him, Chau is equally brilliant. The screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter, adapted from his own play, is filled with discussions about love, literature, truth, and faith (Aronofsky has grappled with themes of faith in much of his work, especially Noah and Mother! ). Aronofsky's direction is skilled but not showy, closer to The Wrestler than his other movies and focused mainly on character and performance. The movie flows beautifully, even if it sometimes feels a little stage-bound and cutesy. (For a recluse, Charlie is never without someone to talk to.) Overall, it's a movie that twists preconceptions.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Whale 's depiction of body image . How do you think the filmmakers intend you to see Charlie? What message is the movie saying about judging others?

Why is it so important to Charlie for people to "write the truth"?

Did you notice positive diverse representations in the film? Are stereotypes used, or avoided?

How are drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

How does the movie promote compassion ? Why is that an important character strength?

Movie Details

In theaters : December 9, 2022
Cast : Brendan Fraser , Hong Chau , Sadie Sink
Director : Darren Aronofsky
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors
Studio : A24
Genre : Drama
Character Strengths : Compassion
Run time : 117 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language, some drug use and sexual content
Award : Academy Award
Last updated : September 9, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The Whale review – Darren Aronofsky’s latest is a contrived disappointment

It’s hard to feel much sympathy for Brendan Fraser’s morbidly obese English teacher in this much anticipated but underwhelming return to movies

D arren Aronofsky’s vapid, hammy and stagey movie, adapted by Samuel D Hunter from his own 2012 play, is the festival’s biggest and most surprising disappointment: the writing clunks; the narrative is contrived and unconvincing and the whole film has a strange pass-agg body language, as if it is handling its own painful subject matter with kid gloves and asking us to do the same. Brendan Fraser is Charlie, an English teacher in charge of an online study course, run via Zoom. He claims to the group that his laptop camera isn’t working, which is why the square on the screen where his face should be is blank. But actually he doesn’t want them to see what he looks like: Charlie is morbidly obese, a giant pool of flesh, hardly able to leave the couch with a walking frame to get to the lavatory, gorging delivery pizzas and fried chicken, with a stash of chocolate bars in the desk drawer. Our first view of Charlie is of him masturbating to gay porn, culminating in a heart attack that almost kills him.

But this isn’t supposed to be ironic black comedy and Charlie isn’t supposed to be greedy or lazy or selfish (although these uncaring talking points are not really aired). He is depressed after the death of his partner, a former student from an adult night-school class for whom he left his wife and young daughter; it was a desertion for which he is still guilt-stricken.

Charlie’s only friend now is his late partner’s sister Liz (Hong Chau), a tough-minded nurse exasperated at his refusal to go to hospital. His fragile, lonely life becomes more complicated still with the arrival at his door of a strange young man, Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a Christian evangelist from the church of which Charlie’s partner was a member. His angry, conflicted daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), also appears to want to reconnect.

Alongside it all, there is Charlie’s love of literature, especially Melville’s Moby-Dick, and Charlie is glumly aware that he is the whale, the huge bloated entity that no one wants to hunt down or obsess over or even think about at all. Or perhaps it is that Charlie is hunting the elusive meaning of his own wrecked life, deep in the ocean of loneliness.

Fraser brings a definite gentleness and openness to the role of Charlie, and his performance is good, although of course it is upstaged by the showy latex and the special effects, which are there to elicit a mix of horror and sympathy and awards-season love, like a very serious male version of the “ Fat Monica ” prom video scene in Friends.

There is a too-good-to-be-true sheen to Charlie’s sweet saintliness; his emotional yearning and wounded niceness are underlined by the coercive orchestral score, and this movie’s concept of death is sentimental and even sneakily religiose. But even this isn’t exactly the problem – it is the convoluted plot that surrounds Charlie: the weird and implausible shenanigans around Thomas’s background and Ellie’s unhappiness and bad attitude, all indirectly and clumsily revealed. Charlie believes in Ellie’s essential goodness to the very end, but any supposed ambiguity about her intentions and behaviour is unsatisfying and uninteresting. Fraser does an honest job in the role of Charlie, and Hong Chau brings a welcome fierceness and sinew to the drama, but this sucrose film is very underpowered.

Darren Aronofsky
Drama films
Venice film festival 2022
Venice film festival

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‘Palm Royale’: Allison Janney Crying to a Beached Whale Is Such Important TV

BEHIND THE EPISODE

This week’s “Palm Royale” featured a bonkers-sounding storyline that had its A-list cast sharing the screen with a massive, dying whale. Here’s the story behind the scenes.

Sophie Brookover

The first season of Palm Royale –the Apple TV+ series set in Palm Beach, 1969—has been nothing if not idiosyncratic, a synthesis of meditations on second and even third acts in American life, examinations of power and gender dynamics among the super-rich, and a whole lot of sunny-hued fun—almost always cranked up to 11 and all filtered through a queer lens. This is a show that featured a 15-minute rumba set piece earlier in the season, so the audience knew coming into the series’ eighth episode, “Maxine Saves A Whale,” that Palm Royale doesn’t simply go for big swings, it relishes them.

Still, nothing could have prepared us for the sudden spectacle of an actual humpback whale beaching itself just outside the Dellacorte mansion, or for the profound self-reflection it prompts in three characters in particular: Maxine Dellacorte ( Kristen Wiig ), Evelyn Rollins ( Allison Janney ), and Robert Díaz (Ricky Martin). Yes, in this episode, Allison Janney has her most emotional acting scene of the series, tearfully pouring out Evelyn’s bruised heart to a giant, dying whale.

As wild as the whale’s surprise appearance is, series creator and showrunner Abe Sylvia describes it as inevitable, the “objective correlative” to his ensemble’s individual and collective character arcs, and a necessary shove forward along their journeys through what they all interpret as “some kind of karma comeuppance.” He fondly refers to Palm Royale as “a gay fantasia” that is also a drama built atop a rich seam of melancholy its characters must mine to navigate their own personal reckonings.

For Sylvia, the series’ eighth episode was the moment to take “a tremendous swing” in pursuit of Palm Royale ’s mission to be “light fare that seeks to delight” while locating the nexus of its many plot threads. Even a madcap farce needs to be grounded in reality, lest it spin off into just so much narrative cotton candy. As our high society strivers hurtle towards the series’ final two episodes, what better mechanism to prompt karmic examinations of their life choices than an inconveniently and perhaps mystically self-beaching whale? Series mastermind Sylvia chatted with The Daily Beast’s Obsessed to reflect on the grit behind his Palm Beach’s glamor, the challenges of pursuing a fully authentic life, and what makes Allison Janney's and Ricky Martin’s performances so extraordinary.

Ricky Martin and Kristen Wiig

Funnily enough, the idea for a massive cetacean deus ex machina came from reality. “As we were developing this episode,” Sylvia recalls, “whales were washing up on shores around the world, and nobody knew why. I always think when these unexplained natural phenomena happen, it’s because people are doing something to the world that they are not taking responsibility for.”

That suited the theme of an episode rooted in character development and turning points. The whale’s arrival prompts existential crises for Maxine, Robert, and Evelyn; each must dig deep to reconnect with long-buried aspects of their most essential selves. It’s an acknowledgment that whether they stay in Palm Beach and manifest their dream existences or find themselves caught out and booted from its Edenic (yet poisonous) confines, they’ll still be whoever they fundamentally are, wherever they land.

Through these confrontations, “Maxine Saves A Whale” highlights the consequences of the long-term playacting Maxine, Robert, and Evelyn have been doing, typecasting themselves into very narrow roles to get the lives they want. It’s not coincidental that not one of this trio is from old money. Their inability to control and fully benefit from the wealth they’re adjacent to makes their social positions quite precarious, and their actions occasionally desperate.

Maxine is the most immediately affected; if that whale doesn’t scooch its way back into the open ocean, its rotting corpse will make hosting the all-essential Beach Ball impossible. She professes not to believe in karma, but is decent enough to know that Robert is going to learn sooner or later that she sacrificed his romance with the con artist pretending to be Luxembourgian royalty in order to save her husband Douglas (Josh Lucas) from prosecution by the FBI. Within “that budding friendship, there’s a chasm now,” Sylvia says, making it more promising and more fragile than ever before. Long accustomed to dancing backwards, in heels , to get where she’s going, Maxine has now added entire place settings to the plates she’s been twirling all along.

Robert, ignorant of Maxine’s betrayal and leaning on her for sympathy, has been shielding himself against both heartbreak and persecution for the last 20 years by remaining a closeted gay man, but can he really continue down that path now that he’s had a glimpse of what his life could be with the right guy?

While both Maxine and viewers wait for the other shoe to drop, poor Robert blames himself for the fake prince’s downfall, sublimating his accumulated longing, grief, and shame into haunting trumpet solos. He’s been happy enough living in the Dellacorte estate’s pool house for years, perhaps, as part of the arrangements of his relationship with Norma. Sylvia notes that the dynamic between Robert and Norma is rooted in a long-established social tradition of “gay men worship the tenacity and fierceness of the older women, and the women love the adoration of a younger, good-looking guy without the threat of sex” that could destabilize their friendship. Given that “there’s a connection between sex and longing and death for Robert,” and the near-guaranteed social and legal repercussions that coming out would have for him, up until now, relinquishing the comfort of his life in the pool house was unthinkable. But what if?

Ricky Martin’s restrained, heartfelt performance as the guarded and caring Robert has been a revelation. In his hands, the character has been fully three-dimensional from his first scene, something Sylvia has marveled over since casting him: “We ran towards these essential qualities that this beautiful actor was bringing to the set every day… he’s the straight man in the show.” In an ensemble of divas all the way down, Martin’s soulful approach provided “the exact counterpoint we needed for all of the zaniness going on” in the story.

Ricky Martin

Outside of the Dellacorte household, Evelyn Rollins (Janney) has been brought low by the news that her late husband Skeet ( Bruce Dern ) cut her almost entirely out of his will, leaving most of his millions to his daughter Linda ( Laura Dern ). After decades of relishing her status as a wealthy and powerful society wife, Evelyn is staring down the possibility of becoming a commoner once more, consigned to exile in a trailer park in a Florida town nobody’s ever heard of. In that moment of crisis, Sylvia says, “the whale washing up on shore touches something in her that gets her back to her essential self, talking about her childhood, and about being a showgirl” before becoming Mrs. Skeet Rollins. Marrying into wealth was not the eternal insurance policy she anticipated it would be.

Sylvia’s praise for Janney’s performance is both lavish and justified, describing her as “magical in this episode.” He adds: “She truly is a sorceress in terms of what she is able to do emotionally with an audience” because “she’s able to play truth and style in equal measure.” Palm Royale is most effective when it gives the audience glimpses of what lies behind the veneer of gaiety and the decades’ worth of dreams deferred that are required to prop up that image.

In the end, Maxine coaxes the whale back where it belongs, offering a nakedly apologetic serenade—in whalesong, of course—from the deck of a yacht. It’s silly and improbable, but in another showcase for Wiig’s versatility, she sells it. There are no sly, knowing winks here, just sincerity and a kind of promise to do right by the people Maxine cares about, and by her true self, too. Let’s hope she keeps it.

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Whalefall Movie: What We Know So Far About The Upcoming Book Adaptation

W hen movie lovers think of the most intense thrillers set at sea, the best shark movies — such as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws or the fact-based horror movie , Open Water — might come to mind. However, admirers of classic literature might have a softer spot for stories in which a human protagonist comes into conflict with an even grander beast: the whale. You may have likely heard of the biblical story of Jonah or author Herman Melville’s epic, influential 1851 book, Moby-Dick , but are you familiar with a more recent novel called Whalefall ?

If not, you surely will soon, because the 2023 book has been optioned for a movie that is currently in the works at Disney’s 20th Century Studios. So, exactly what sort of conflict does the human protagonist of this story face when he encounters the large mammal, and who is bringing this story to life for the big screen? We shall reveal that and other important details in our following guide to everything that we know so far about the upcoming film, Whalefall .

What Is The Whalefall Release Date?

For the time being, there has been no confirmed release date for Whalefall yet. The film has only just recently gone into development, as reported in an exclusive article run by Deadline in March 2024.

Thus, it could be a considerably lengthy wait — but, hopefully, not a whale-sized wait — before we even get an announcement of when the film is set to hit theaters. However, anyone who is familiar with the story behind this upcoming film should have no issue keeping their anticipation afloat.

Based On A Bestselling Thriller Novel By Daniel Kraus

Inspired by the aforementioned book of the same name, Whalefall (according to Simon & Schuster ’s official description) tells the story of Jay Gardiner — a scuba diver on a personal mission to retrieve the remains of his father, who took his own life just a year earlier, in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, his search is interrupted when he comes across a fight between a giant squid and a sperm whale and, amid the commotion, he finds himself trapped inside the 80-foot, sixty-ton whale’s stomach. Running low on oxygen, Gardiner struggles to escape his gargantuan captor and defeat his own inner demons before it is too late.

Published by MTV Books (a division of Simon & Schuster), the acclaimed bestseller — which Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn called “astonishingly great” — comes from the mind of author Daniel Kraus. He made his debut as a writer in 2009 with The Monster Variations — the first of more coming-of-age horror stories, such as Scowler — and would eventually dabble in writing comic books of a scary variety, such as the apocalyptic Year Zero and a special holiday-themed one shot inspired by the classic horror anthology movie , Creepshow , from 2023. Kraus also has his name on a few literary series, including the two-part The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch and The Teddies Saga .

Brian Duffield Is Directing Whalefall

At the helm of Whalefall is someone who has experience telling stories about young loners quarreling with fearsome creatures and their own dark pasts. Brian Duffield — the mastermind behind one of the best horror movies on Hulu , 2023’s No One Will Save You — personally announced he was directing the film with a post to his Instagram account.

Before writing and directing the masterfully unique alien invasion movie , Duffield made his directorial debut with another, comparatively lighter novel adaptation: the romantic, coming-of-age fantasy comedy, Spontaneous , from 2020. Prior to, he was known primarily as a writer of other horror-comedy movies like The Babysitter or Love and Monsters and even more earnest thrillers like 2020’s Underwater and the Natalie Portman-led Western, Jane Got a Gun, from 2015. He is also the developer of Netflix’s animated King Kong spin-off series, Skull Island .

Duffield And Kraus Are Writing The Film Together

Daniel Kraus also took to Instagram to share that he is involved in the development of his own novel’s adaptation as he is collaborating with Duffield on the script for Whalefall . This marks the first time the author’s has been so heavily involved in a screen adaptation of his own work, but not his first collaboration with a noted horror filmmaker.

He was also an associate producer on the Best Picture Oscar winner , The Shape of Water , for which he collaborated on the novelization with Guillermo del Toro. Later, he and the Academy Award winner co-authored the book Trollhunters , which became a Netflix original animated series. Kraus also had the honor of completing The Living Dead — a novel that was started by modern zombie movies inventor George A. Romero before his passing.

Ron Howard And Brian Grazer Produce

At the moment, the most recognizable names attached to Whalefall are actually the producers: Academy Award-winning duo Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. According a report by Deadline , the long-time producing partners’ company, Imagine Entertainment, had previously bought the rights to adapt Kraus’ novel before 20th Century Studios won the bid for the theatrical distribution rights.

Curiously enough, this will not be the first time that Howard and Grazer have worked on a movie about a whale as Howard directed 2015’s In the Heart of the Sea , which was based on the true event that inspired Moby-Dick . Additionally, it is not their first time collaborating on an intense story of survival, as one of Ron Howard’s best movies (which Grazer also produced) is the 1995 space movie classic , Apollo 13 .

With the talent involved in Whalefall , this thriller could end up being a whale of a hit. Be sure to check back for more updates on the development of this upcoming adventure.

Whalefall Movie: What We Know So Far About The Upcoming Book Adaptation

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