The Whale Review: Brendan Fraser deserved better than this melodramatic Oscar bait

Most of the anticipation for Daren Aronofsky’s new psychological drama The Whale (which recently received a theatrical release in India) revolved around its leading man and Oscar nominee Brendan Fraser. The Mummy star, after all, had a heartwarming comeback. With a prolonged sabbatical followed by sexual abuse at the hands of film industry exec Philip Berk, Fraser finally returned to the big screen last year with a performance being described as his career-best.

While The Whale might indeed have been his career-best performance (sorry George of the Jungle fans), it can be argued that Fraser deserved a better comeback. He might just end up winning the Best Actor Oscar this year for all we know but the film as a whole might not age well. 

As one would figure from the poster itself and its pre-release backlash, The Whale revolves around Charlie, a morbidly obese lecturer who remains confined within his claustrophobic home. Set almost entirely within this cramped space (cramped further with the 1:1 screen ratio), the film follows a stageplay-like approach with Charlie’s friends and family barging in at times and delivering tear-eyed monologues. Driven to binge-eating and self-loathing after a personal tragedy, Charlie refuses to budge from his couch or even go to the hospital, no matter how much his best friend/attendant (Hong Chau) and his estranged daughter (Sadie Sink) convince him to. 

The theatrical dialogue delivery makes sense given how The Whale is adapted from Samuel D Hunter’s play of the same name with Hunter himself serving as screenwriter. With Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream’s Daren Aronofsky stepping in as director, you would know that The Whale is not an easy watch. And while his previous films might have succeeded at disturbing viewers with the director’s trademarked brand of poetic tragedy, The Whale ends up falling in the more forced territory of “trauma porn” (if I may use that word). 

Yes, The Whale will move you with its depiction of a grieving man coping with his body issues and self-worth through eating junk and dropping waterfalls of tears. You might even cry but it almost feels like Aronofsky is holding a gun to your temple and asking you to cry. The camerawork around Charlie’s movements turn his colossal body to almost a grotesque spectacle. 

Again, to reassert the hype for the so-called “Brenaissance”, Fraser is in his A-game but Aronofsky seems to be so busy in building the shock value around his titular “whale” that you might feel disturbed to the point of rage. The backlash that The Whale had been generating since last year was mostly around the film being fatphobic in its depiction of the lead character, a claim that got more traction considering that Fraser himself is covered in layers of prosthetics and bodysuits. 

READ MORE: The ‘Brenaissance’ is here. Brendan Fraser’s comeback to cinema is a story of courage and compassion

I myself have not gone through obesity or any body image issues so I will still distance myself from calling The Whale a work of crass fatphobia. But for all the backlash that I have been reading so far and after watching the film myself, I can’t help but agree with the backlash. Again, diehard Aronofsky fans might argue that the whole point of this film is to disturb the viewers and arouse empathy for its protagonist. And while Aronofsky might have tried to draw teary-eyed reactions like he hoped for, it sadly comes at the cost of shock value. 

From start to finish, the audience seems to show pity towards Charlie more than empathising for him and normalising his personality. Yes, he clearly has mental and physical issues but if only Hunter and Aronofsky would have tried to tone down the almost over-the-top nature of the characters, the drama would have been more effective. 

There are a handful of scenes where Charlie does say that he wants to be seen as “normal” for a change and not as someone who needs constant sympathy but then again the film just ends up going against Charlie’s demand for most of the time. And even if you remove your moral compass and try to view The Whale as a piece of fiction with no real-world consequences, it would still end up making for a clunky end product. 

From Hong Chau (who deservedly got her Oscar nomination but she still doesn’t seem win-worthy) to Sadie Sink (who seems to be still playing her Stranger Things character), every character seems to break down into their own sobstory, talking about the problems they have gone through. Maybe, with a little more nuance, these prolonged monologues would have worked but they come off as just exercises in sympathy-seeking while ticking off all the necessary boxes of the stereotypical Oscar bait movie. 

Apart from Charlie’s obesity and depression, Aronofsky seems to be ticking off one morbid issue after the other from homophobia to religious extremism to divorce to what not. Argued by many as his greatest work, even Black Swan dabbled in multiple discomforting issues. Not only does Natalie Portman’s ballet dancing-lead go through a painful journey for artistic perfection but she also has to encounter eating disorders, hallucinations, and an overbearing mother. And yet Black Swan flowed more seamlessly than the cluttered mess that The Whale turns out to be. 

By the end, The Whale would seem to remind one of the 2020 psychological drama The Father that earned Anthony Hopkins an Oscar for Best Actor. Much like The Whale, writer-director Florian Zeller’s exploration of the character’s old age and dementia played out almost like a horror film. But the execution seemed to be much more tasteful with some genuinely teary moments instead of WTF-inducing shock value. The similarities are many. The Father is also set mostly within one house and based on Zeller’s own play. Just like Charlie, the lead also refuses to receive any medical assistance.  So, while both movies might have been conceptualised with good intentions, The Whale unfortunately sinks to disappointing levels. 

If you’re planning to still watch The Whale in theatres, let this review be a trigger warning for what is to come. Otherwise, just watch The Father at home or binge on any of Brendan Fraser’s other feel-good entertainers. Wish he had a cinematically better and more tasteful comeback...

We’re going with 2 stars out of 5 for The Whale.