Review | The Whale

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The Whale is a beautiful, emotional, and interesting movie from start to finish. I must admit that I had some reservations about the film, be that subject matter I had little knowledge of, or a distaste for the director. But thank god for Brendan Fraser, as he was my main motivation for seeing this movie. Almost out of the gate, I was captivated, and glued to the screen. This movie is so much more than I thought, and weighed heavily (pun intended) on my mind days after leaving the theater.



Summary
Based on the 2012 play of the same name, The whale follows the account of an overweight English teacher named Charlie. In an unexpectedly beautiful yet heart wrenching story, we see themes of religion, relationships, and personal health. Charlie is living his day to day life, editing English papers, teaching his online class, mostly keeping himself hidden, and leaving twenty bucks in the mailbox for the pizza delivery guy. Throughout the film we see Charlie's health decline rapidly, as his food intake remains steady. Though his friend and caretaker Liz urges him to go to a hospital for his high risk of Congestive Heart failure, he remains adamant that he can't afford it. After being saved by a door to door New Life Christian Missionary Charlie begins to realize his time is running out, and wants to try and rekindle his relationship with his daughter. We are taken on a Journey of a man's life, his spiral into depression after the loss of a partner, and his wish to have "done one thing right in [his] life".

Religion

Religion plays a somewhat large role in this film. We are introduced to the character Thomas after he helps Charlie by reading an essay he loves out loud. Thomas states that he is a Christian Missionary from New Life, and after meeting Charlie, believes he was sent to his door for a reason. Because of this we see Thomas visiting Charlie more and more, attempting to provide him with further information about New Life. Most of the time however, he is intercepted by Liz who reveals that not only has New Life ruined Charlie's life but hers as well.

Thomas is an interesting character, at first we are led to believe he is the classic "have you heard the good news" salesmen, but slowly find out that he is just like everyone else. He steals, lies, and has run away from his family. We eventually find out that he's not even in New Life any longer. But still believes in the end that he can save Charlie through God. Thomas overall has good intentions, but he is flawed, and lets his beliefs take over what he deems to be right or wrong. Knowing what he knows about New Life, he still tries to push religion on to Charlie, eventually pushing him past his breaking point, leading Charlie to uncharacteristically lash out at him.

I think its important here to understand that Charlie doesn't judge Thomas. The natural reaction most people have is to slam the door and kick him out. Especially after we learn what happened to Charlie's boyfriend. But time and time again Charlie invites Thomas in, and is willing to hear him out. Being able to express yourself and share what you believe is a wonderful thing, but also being willing to listen to others is an admirable trait. Kindness and listening to each other regardless of belief is a key here. Its unfortunate that Thomas fails in this regard, and lets his religion take over. Forcing an opinion on someone, has hardly ever worked for anyone.

Relationships & Health

As the story progresses, we begin to understand that the loss of Charlie's boyfriend Alan, is the leading cause of his weight gain. What I find interesting, is that when Alan's mental health is in decline he wasn't eating anything and slowly withering away. Eating is a coping mechanism for many people, and for Charlie I believe he was trying to eat for two. He even tells Liz himself that he tried to help Alan as best he could.

What I love about this movie is that it's not over the top preaching for people to get healthy, or to get over loss, or that it's easy to cope with mental health. We see a struggle of both physical and mental disability, an honest story of a person suffering, and their coping mechanisms, we see what it's like to be human and to be flawed.

Loss is obviously huge in this film, but the one loss in Charlie's life, that he feels he can fix, is his relationship with is daughter Ellie. She is seemingly the opposite of him. She hates people, is cruel, and yet Charlie believes her to be an amazing person. Throughout the movie she is distant, states that she doesn't care about Charlie, and is only using him for money as well as getting some papers re-written. It's not until the end that she is reminded in her own words, who she is. It's the essay that Charlie holds so close to him, that she is the author of. This is the full circle moment of the film, and really its strongest moment. As Charlie is on his deathbed, Ellie, after some protest, reads her own words out loud. This is the final moment of Charlie's life, and yet the moment their relationship was finally closer than ever. With a breath and a cut to black, hearing the sound of waves, we are taken to the credits. People make mistakes, its natural and a human condition, sometimes forgiveness is the better road to take before the end.

Final Thoughts

Coming from the director who made Requiem for a Dream, a movie in which I care for enough to hardly remember its premise, and one in which my partner loathes so much he deems it the worst movie ever made. Let's just say I didn't have high expectations. Although I did have hope as I am 100% on the Brendan comeback train. This movie was definitely worth the watch, and I have resolved to watch it again in hopes to see things I may have missed the first time around.

I think one of the main takeaways from this movie is that you can't help everyone. More specifically, people are always going to do what they are going to do, regardless of your actions. However just being there for someone in any form, can be life changing. That I can tell you from personal experience.

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