The Whale

There are a few movies left to catch up on before I make my end of year list of favorites so I went to see The Whale at the Broadway last night and, while I was very impressed with Brendan Fraser's performance, I did not like it at all.  Charlie (Fraser) is a morbidly obese and reclusive English professor who teaches writing courses online without enabling the camera on his computer.  When he has a health scare involving his heart he finds solace in reading a student's essay on the novel Moby Dick by Herman Melville and draws a comparison between himself and the whale.  His caregiver Liz (Hong Chau) fears that he is in congestive heart failure and that he doesn't have long to live but he refuses to go to the hospital.  Knowing that he could die at any moment, he attempts a reconciliation with his estranged teenage daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) who is angry and bitter over his abandonment of her and her mother Mary (Samantha Morton) nine years earlier to have a relationship with one of his male students.  Ellie lashes out at her father but, despite her cruelty, he only sees the good in her.  This is reinforced by a sub-plot involving Ellie's relationship with an evangelical missionary named Thomas (Ty Simkins) because her betrayal ends well for him.  Many have had a very positive reaction to this movie but it was extremely difficult for me to watch because I found Aronofsky's portrayal of Charlie to be steeped in humiliation rather than empathy.  It is almost voyeuristic because every scene involving Charlie's body seems designed to shock the audience (particularly the scene where we actually see him for the first because he is awkwardly masturbating to gay pornography).  It was also upsetting to me that, with the possible exception of Liz, every character responds to him with disgust (even the pizza delivery boy with whom he has had a sort of friendship until he sees him).  Finally, Fraser does what he can with the material (his eyes and voice are incredibly expressive) but, ultimately, Charlie is a static character because everyone reacts to him instead of interacting with him and it is their redemption that he seeks rather than his own.  The symbolism is excessive, most of the performances are overwrought (I am definitely in the minority but I disliked Sink's performance because there is no nuance at all), the score is manipulative, and the one location (Charlie's dark and dingy apartment) makes this feel like a showy stage performance.  Not only do I not recommend this, I regret seeing it myself.