I feel like I should preface this with a few qualifiers. I don't generally like this type of movie, I don't typically like movies that try to pull on your heartstrings with terminal illness as the story, even when it's done well, it feels like a cheap shot. Even more do I dislike those kind of documentaries that this kind of reminds me of (you know the ones.) Maybe this says somethiing about me, but it feels too close to inspiration porn for my liking. I'm also not typically one for movies that feel like they were made to win Oscars. This film is all of those things. To be frank, my interest in seeing this film began and ended with the fact of Brendan Fraser playing the lead role. So anyway the first thing we see Brendan Fraser do on cinema screens for the better part of twenty years is jack it to gay porn in a fatsuit...
All that said, while The Whale is all of the things I described, it is a very well done version of them. Even if I find the premise distasteful, I cannot fault the performance of Brendan Fraser, or indeed anyone else in this movie. It's largely localised to one room as is Fraser's character himself, and as such films like this live and die on the strength of the cast and their chemistry. Which, as mentioned, is excellent.
The story is appropriately tragic for an Oscar movie about a morbidly obese man, and more than a little cheesy, which I usually like, but this movie crosses the line from sincere to hokey several times, though rarely enough that it's not an issue, until the end, by which point there's little point in maintaining that veneer anyway, might as well go nuts. It's also based on a play, so I guess it gets a little leeway there for cheesiness if nothing else.
If I had to come up with one word to thematically sum up this film, it would be "judgement." Brendan Fraser's character Charlie secludes himself from the outside world and disables the camera on his zoom calls because he fears the judgement of those around him. As an English professor teaching courses online, his job is to judge the writing of his students. He is judged harshly by his daughter and ex-wife for leaving them for a man, whose ultimate fate was rooted in the judgement of his peers.
Thomas the missionary judges Charlie to be in need of "saving" and is running from judgement in his own story. Charlie's daughter Ellie resents the judgement of others for her falling grades and abraisive personality. Even Liz, Charlie's one constant pillar of support throughout the film and the only one with whom he is visibly comfortable, is not exempt from this theme.
Sooner or later it all comes back to judgement, which compliments Charlie's fondness for honesty nicely. The one lesson he tries to impart to his students throughout the film is to find their voice and be honest about their perspective. Thematically this film ties together very well, I just wish it didn't feel so mean-spirited about it, though maybe that's the point.
It's here I should probably mention my own biases in appraising this film. Growing up as a disabled person, more specifically a wheelchair user, about as visibly disabled as one can be, I have, of course, inevitably been treated, and forced to interact with the world in ways that felt dehumanising. I'm also no stranger to the concept of "Inspiration porn" (A term coined by Stella Young to describe the reduction of disabled people to objects of inspiration, as if we exist to remind you that your life could be worse.) This film put me very much in mind of both things. In particular those, to quote Mitchell and Webb "point and laugh, but in a caring way" documentaries that, to put it lightly I was never a fan of.
So what I'm saying is, I'm about the farthest thing possible from the target audience of this movie. This should be acknowledged when I tell you I found these aspects of it distasteful. That said, The Whale boasts the performance of Brendan Fraser's career, a very well-written and thematically strong interpersonal drama, and a fantastic supporting cast who all deserve to get a lot more work from this.
Not sure I understand the point of that aspect ratio though...
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