The Whale

Showtimes January 20 - 26:

Academy Award Nominee:
Brendan Fraser, Best Actor; Hong Chau, Best Supporting Actress; Makeup and Hairstyling

The Whale invites us to identify with a person in a precarious state of isolation. Charlie (Fraser) is a 600-pound man whose obesity prevents him from leaving his apartment. An inspired and good-natured professor, he teaches writing online but tells his students his webcam is malfunctioning to hide his appearance. 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 encourages him to go to the hospital but also recognizes that it might be more important to simply offer support. Adamant about staying in his apartment, Charlie’s resistance to healing himself bespeaks a deeper crisis. He may not want help.

Charlie’s precarious state is pushed further toward its edge by the return of his long-estranged daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), whose willingness to resume a relationship seems prompted as much by her dad’s offers to ghostwrite her school essays as it is by her sense of familial loyalty. Meanwhile, Charlie is receiving visits from a door-to-door evangelist (Ty Simpkins) who engages him in a dialogue about redemption that, despite his lack of religious inclination, proves surprisingly resonant. With an utterly captivating performance from Fraser at its center, The Whale is one of Aronofky’s more optimistic films. Its honesty and power lie in its emotional core, which uses love, grief, and discomfort as messy pathways toward empathy and connection.

(US / 2022 / Directed by Darren Aronofsky)
R / 1 hr 57 mins