The Whale (2023)

There’s been plenty made of Darren Aronofksy’s latest, and a lot of it centers on Brendon Fraser’s central performance as chronically obese Charlie, and whether or not he’ll take home the Oscar for his efforts (He did). The Whale is a claustrophobic theater adaptation, taking place almost entirely in Charlie’s apartment as he struggles to belatedly gain a relationship with his estranged daughter; efforts that come shortly after being told he hasn’t got long left if he refuses to travel to a hospital for treatment. His daughter Ellie (Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink, who essentially plays her character from said series) hates him for having left her and her mother (a brief but powerful cameo from Samantha Morton) and doesn’t want to give him the time of day until he agrees to help her with some school homework.

Charlie might indeed hate the way he looks and how everything has played out in his life, but The Whale strives to not center on hate, or indeed perhaps more pertinently, on self-pity. At no point does Charlie blame anyone but himself for his predicament, he knows exactly what he’s done to his own body and he doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him, he simply wants to do something right with his life before he dies, as he says in one of the films surprisingly few powerful Oscar baiting scenes.

Aronofsky always creates at the very least interesting films, his previous effort Mother! (2017) was one of his weaker films but had plenty to say, and religion is a theme that runs through almost all of Aronofsky’s work- obviously in Noah (2014) but also in the hugely underrated The Fountain (2006).

Biblical undertones are very much present in The Whale but the plot is so slight that there’s not enough there for Aronofsky to really get his claws into to fuse religion with the story to create a truly complex experience; The Whale is what it is. It’s adapted well enough to justify its existence as a film, and is anchored by a truly superb performance by Fraser (perhaps The Whale will bring his heartbreaking half hour cameo in Scrubs to a wider audience), along with top-drawer cameos from Morton and Hong Chau, but it does feel like one of Aronofsky’s lesser works. That said however, it absolutely holds your attention and is worth the admission price alone for Fraser’s efforts. 7.0/10