The Whale (2022 film)

The Whale is a 2022 American psychological drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and written by Samuel D. Hunter, based on his 2012 play. The film stars Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Samantha Morton. The plot follows a morbidly obese, reclusive English teacher who tries to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter, whom he had abandoned eight years earlier. The film was shot from March 8 to April 7, 2021, in Newburgh, New York.

The Whale premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2022 and received a polarized response. Although critics lauded the acting, particularly Fraser, Chau and Sink, the film's portrayal of obesity-related struggles drew criticism. Notwithstanding, it was received with acclaim in the awards season. At the 95th Academy Awards ceremony, The Whale won the Oscars for Best Actor (Fraser), Best Makeup and Hairstyling and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Chau. At the 76th British Academy Film Awards, the film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Make Up & Hair, Best Supporting Actress (Chau) and Best Actor for Fraser's performance, who also received a nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama at the 80th Golden Globe Awards.

It had a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on December 9, before a wide release on December 21 by A24, grossing $57.6 million against a budget of $3 million.

Plot

In early 2016, Charlie is a morbidly obese recluse in Moscow, Idaho. He never leaves his apartment, from where he teaches online English writing courses to college students, but keeps his webcam off, ashamed of his appearance. His nurse and only friend, Liz, enables him by bringing him unhealthy food, while urging him to visit a hospital for heart failure treatment, though Charlie insists he cannot afford medical care. Charlie is also visited by Thomas, a missionary for the New Life Church who wants to save him. Charlie orders pizza almost every night through an established routine with delivery driver Dan, who leaves the pizza outside on his porch and collects cash payment from the mailbox, the two never interacting face-to-face.

Charlie hopes to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter Ellie, whom he abandoned eight years before when leaving his wife, Mary, for a male student of his, Alan. He reveals that he has been saving money for years and offers Ellie the entire $120,000 in his bank account if she spends time with him without her mother's knowledge. Ellie agrees on the condition that he completes all of her homework for her, though he also requests that she write in a notebook he gives her. As Charlie's health worsens, Liz brings him a wheelchair so he can remain mobile.

Thomas again visits Charlie. Liz arrives and angrily orders Thomas to leave, then changes her mind and has a talk with him outside. Liz chastises Thomas for his efforts to help Charlie, then reveals she is the adopted daughter of New Life's head pastor and that Alan was her brother; Alan's religious guilt drove him to suicide, and Charlie turned to emotional eating to cope with his grief, leading to his current weight. Despite Liz's objections, Thomas still believes his mission is to help Charlie. One day, Ellie places crushed Ambien into Charlie's food, knocking him out. Thomas arrives, and the two smoke marijuana, which Ellie photographs, whereupon Thomas confesses to stealing his youth group's money and running away from home because he felt dissatisfied with New Life's mission work there. Ellie secretly records their conversation.

Out of concern, Liz brings Mary to visit Charlie. When Liz learns about the amount Charlie has saved for Ellie, she storms out, furious over having been lied to about why he avoided medical treatment. Mary and Charlie argue over his decision to leave his family for Alan. Mary is further exasperated with Ellie's apparently malevolent behavior, but Charlie expresses hope that Ellie will prove he did "one thing right with his life". Later that night, after delivering the pizza and waiting outside in the rain, Dan sees Charlie for the first time, then leaves in a state of shock and disgust. Charlie subsequently has a severe binge-eating episode and sends a profanity-laden email to his students, telling them to disregard the classwork and just write him back "something honest".

Thomas visits Charlie one last time to inform him that he is moving back home after Ellie sent his confession to his former youth group and family, who have forgiven him and implored him to return. He attempts to preach Romans 8:13 to Charlie, but Charlie chastises him when he attributes Alan's death to his sexual orientation and furiously orders him out. During his next class, Charlie tells his students he is being fired for the email he sent, and reads some of their submissions. To reciprocate their honesty, he switches on his webcam for the first time, and the students have mixed reactions. Charlie calmly proclaims that academics and college do not matter, but the honest things his students have written do. He then abruptly ends the class by tossing his laptop against the fridge, destroying it.

Liz returns and comforts Charlie as his health rapidly declines. Ellie arrives to furiously confront him over the failing grade she received on an essay he supposedly rewrote for her, which he secretly replaced with an essay she wrote in eighth grade about Moby-Dick that he considers the most honest essay he has ever read. Ellie initially rebukes him as he attempts to reconcile one final time, but reads the paper aloud at Charlie's insistence. Charlie stands up and begins to walk toward her without assistance, which he had tried but failed to do during her first visit. As she finishes reading, they smile at each other. Charlie begins to levitate, engulfed in a bright white light.

Cast

• Brendan Fraser as Charlie, a morbidly obese and reclusive English teacher
• Sadie Sink as Ellie, Charlie's estranged biological daughter
  • Jacey Sink as young Ellie
• Hong Chau as Liz, a nurse and Charlie's only friend
• Ty Simpkins as Thomas, a Christian missionary that befriends Charlie, Ellie, and Liz
• Samantha Morton as Mary, Charlie's ex-wife and Ellie's estranged mom
• Sathya Sridharan as Dan, a pizza delivery man from a restaurant Charlie frequently orders from

Production

Writing and casting

Darren Aronofsky has said that he tried to get the film, an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter's 2012 play The Whale, made for over a decade, but could not do it because he struggled to find the right actor to portray Charlie. After seeing portions of Brendan Fraser's performance in a trailer for Journey to the End of the Night (2006), he decided that Fraser could be a good choice.

The original play was set in 2009. However, the setting was updated to 2016 in the movie. This was because Hunter wanted to show the events as being before a major "seismic change", and doing so would make it clear that the play's events were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the film, the television shows the unfolding of the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries. In the original play, Thomas, an Evangelical Christian missionary, is instead a Mormon missionary. The Liz character, in the original play and in the screenplay, did not have her ethnic background or race specified. Hong Chau, the actress chosen to portray Liz, is of Asian heritage. The final screenplay specifies that Liz was adopted as a way of accommodating Chau's casting; this was not in the initial revisions of the screenplay. Chau argued that Liz should have an unkempt look and should be tattooed, aspects that were incorporated into the character.

On January 11, 2021, it was announced that A24 had obtained global distribution rights to The Whale, directed by Aronofsky and starring Fraser. Chau, Sadie Sink and Samantha Morton joined the cast in February, followed by Ty Simpkins in March. Sathya Sridharan joined the cast at an unknown date.

At one point, the film was set to star James Corden with Tom Ford directing, but Ford left due to creative differences. George Clooney also briefly considered directing the film, but ultimately declined.

Filming

Principal photography ran from March 8 to April 7, 2021, in Newburgh, New York. It was shot in Academy ratio. Post-production began later in April.

For the role, Fraser spent four hours each day being fitted with prosthetics that weighed up to 300 pounds (136 kg). He also consulted with the Obesity Action Coalition and worked with a dance instructor for months before filming began in order to determine how his character would move with the excess weight.

Hunter stated that it is up to the viewer to interpret whether Charlie actually walks in the ending scene and Fraser argued that Charlie is finally "liberated". Sink stated that her character is emotionally traumatized and that Charlie is able to look through a façade that Ellie puts up as a barrier between herself and her father.

Music

Release

The Whale had its world premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2022, where it received a six-minute standing ovation. It made its North American premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2022. It had a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 9, 2022, then expanded to wide release on December 21.