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The Whale is centered around English tutor Charlie (Brendan Fraser), living in Idaho, working from home, and who never goes on camera, claiming it’s broken.
As we can see from the start – and in a film which takes place entirely in his house – he’s eaten so much and exercised so little, that he can barely get out of his sofa. Hardly anyone visits, so he might just be slightly welcoming when Thomas (Ty Simpkins) turns up, wanting to use his phone, whilst forever preaching about the Bible and “how you should accept Jesus into your heart”.
Still, at least the young man can make himself useful, since Charlie’s obsessed with an essay from a particular student about Moby Dick – hence ‘the whale’ in the title – and not because he’s gargantuan; and he asks Thomas to read it to him, much to the young lad’s confusion.
With the story starting on a Monday and running throughout the week, he always refuses to go to hospital, and instead of paying for care or health insurance, he relies on old friend, Liz (Hong Chau – The Menu). She’s mad at him because his blood pressure is 238/134 and he’s not doing anything about it. As such, he suffers from congestive heart failure, and if he doesn’t improve his lifestyle, he won’t be around much longer.
So, can he get any positive words of encouragement from anyone? Well, he has a daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink, below), who’s angry with the world like a typical, tempestous teenager. She tells him he’s disgusting, not because of his size, but because he left her and her mother, Mary (Samantha Morton – She Said), when Ellie was just 8. Given she’s now 17, he’s trying to reconnect with her before it might just be too late.
In fact, The Whale is all about trying to make human connections, similar to when everyone was shut in during the lockdowns during the COVID19 pandemic, and the best thing was to make use of the hour we had for exercise each day, going for long walks because it was essential to see other people, rather than be indoors for 24 hours a day like the average big-name Youtuber – mentioning no names, i.e. Metal Jesus Rocks, RGT85 and Beat-em-ups. In fact, when you’re working from home, sometimes, they could be the only people you see all week!
The Whale plays out like a stage play, and I didn’t realise until the credits rolled that I learned screenwriter Samuel D Hunter based the script on his own play, but it translates brilliantly to the screen, and director Darren Aronofsky (mother!) uses the rather rare aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (4:3), like an old television. I haven’t seen that one used in a long time for a film’s entire duration, except for the recent Living (Bill Nighy) and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
When it comes to the cast, everyone is on top form. The film couldn’t really work without that, but in addition to agreeing that Brendan Fraser gives a career-best performance, high praise is also deserved for Sadie Sink as his daughter, and it made me think – how much better would The Last Of Us have been with Sadie Sink as Ellie? The programme is such a disappointment.
I definitely want to see this again, but that’ll be on a home format, rather than the cinema.
to finish, there is one great line that made me laugh, although it’s a potential spoiler about Charlie’s life, so I’ll add this behind a spoiler header:
The Whale is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 117 minutes
Release date: February 3rd 2023
Studio: A24
Format: 1.33:1
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 9/10
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Jeremy Dawson, Ari Handel
Screenplay: Samuel D Hunter (based on his play)
Music: Rob Simonsen
Cast:
Charlie: Brendan Fraser
Ellie: Sadie Sink
Liz: Hong Chau
Thomas: Ty Simpkins
Mary: Samantha Morton
Dan The Pizza Man: Sathya Sridharan
Young Ellie: Jacey Sink
Liam: Wilhelm Schalaudek (uncredited)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.