The Whale is a phenomenal film, depicting a reaction to grief that is rarely shown in cinema. It tells the story of a man aspiring to rekindle lost love as he eats himself to death in a small apartment in “Mormon Country”, Idaho. This film shows us how easy it is to lose sight of oneself when we get hurt, to build walls and destroy the person we once were. Adapted from a play by Samuel D. Hunter, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale embodies emotional trauma and the effect it has on the protagonist Charlie.
Charlie, played brilliantly by Brendan Fraser, is a kind and loving man who is dealing with the loss of someone very close to him. He refuses to see anything but the good in people, as he tries to build a relationship with his daughter Ellie, who is a troubled and dark soul to say the least. Eight years ago, Charlie fell in love with one of his students, and left his wife and daughter to be with him. The film doesn’t focus on the details of how this went down but it becomes clear that Charlie didn’t make that much of an effort to stay in contact with his daughter. Again, this seems like a grey area as he clearly loves and adores her, and the family’s initial reaction towards him falling in love with one of his students is unknown (older student, online course).
A similar depiction of this response to grief is shown in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in which the mother turns to food for comfort after losing her husband. Like Charlie, she closes herself away from the world, refusing to see anyone but her family worried how people will react to her appearance.
Ellie, depicted by Sadie Sink, is a cruel and wicked character. Initially her actions seem like those of a normal teenage girl, but as the narrative unfolds the things she does become increasingly worse. Charlie can see nothing wrong with her and in his eyes, she’s an angel. Perhaps his perception of her is clouded by the guilt he feels for leaving her or maybe he really is the most optimistic person in the world towards everyone except himself. Her ending however is beautiful, and we see her stripped down to what she really is, an abandoned girl. She never uses any soft or endearing words towards him until the final scene where she calls him “Daddy” for the first time.
An homage to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, the film references the novel throughout. There is an essay based on the book which Charlie often reads to calm his heart rate or simply to motivate himself to move. The novel’s protagonist, Captain Ahab, desperately wants to kill the whale; it is his soul purpose to destroy this huge obstacle preventing him from happiness, a metaphor for how Charlie views himself as he sits in his apartment, slowly eating himself to death. There is the moment where the essay diverges into a section about the books chapters which describe whales and suggests that the writer (Melville) does this to distract from his own sad story. We aren’t distracted from Charlie’s sad story but are reminded that there are other characters in the film that fall into this placement.
‘Call me Ishmael’ is the first line of Moby Dick, and in the film, there is an interesting scene where Charlie wants Thomas, a religious missionary worker, to tell him he is disgusting. Charlie is aware how most people feel about his appearance; he never leaves the house and keeps his camera off when he teaches online courses, but he needs Thomas to call him disgusting, he needs the name to become him to confirm what he already suspects about himself.
“People are amazing” – Charlie says this with the biggest smile, with nothing but kindness and adoration in his heart. He is a character who loves and feels so deeply, who believes that people are incapable of not caring, and we see this come through with Ellie. Her cruel actions are because she is hurting so deeply, like her father. The Birdman-esque ending is shrouded in the hope of regaining love and affection, confirming a bond between a father and daughter which was thought to have been destroyed. It’s hard to comprehend why Charlie left his family in the way he did, as he seems to care so much, and even his ex-wife confirms that he has always been insanely optimistic. This film will break your heart. The voyage of The Whale is an incredible one.
Image “Brendan Fraser October 2022” by Montclair Film is licensed under CC BY 2.0.