I was looking forward to watching ‘The Whale‘, the last of 2022’s major Oscar-winning films that I hadn’t seen. Darren Aronofsky is a director who never ceases to amaze me. His feature debut with ‘Pi’ and films like ‘Black Swan’ or ‘Requiem for a Dream’ position him among the most original and important American directors of his generation. But some of his choices I just don’t understand. How can the same director who made the films mentioned above also direct ‘The Fountain’ or ‘Noah’? ‘The Whale‘ seems like an attempt to return to quality cinematography and includes many great cinematographic and acting moments. It’s also an extremely emotionally intense film, as pretty much all of Aronofsky‘s good films are. And yet, the final impression is of a cinematic work in which some of the component parts are more interesting and of higher quality than the whole.
The story takes place in the closed space of a house and especially in its living room, and we immediately guess (if it escaped us from the introductory credits) that this film is an adaptation of a play (by Samuel D. Hunter, who also signs the script). The house belongs to Charlie, a lonely and morbidly overweight man who makes a living by giving essay writing lessons on the Internet. During the lessons he keeps his video camera closed so that the students don’t see his pathetic physical condition. In fact, he is living his last week of life. He and devoted nurse Liz, who will prove to be a friend and more than that, know this. In a moment of crisis, a young preacher, Thomas, appears at his door, saving his life, or rather postponing his death. The approaching end prompts Charlie to reconnect with his daughter Ellie, whom he abandoned ten years ago with her mother to follow his love for another man. That episode hadn’t ended well either, and the meeting with the daughter, herself in deep crisis at the end of a troubled adolescence, will not go the way he wanted either.
Darren Aronofsky is known for subjecting his actors to extremes – physically and emotionally. It is also the case for the actors of the characters in ‘The Whale‘. Brendan Fraser and the technicians who created his makeup and physical enlargement each received an Academy Award for their performances. The awards are well deserved, even if the decision for the lead male actor was not easy or obvious this year. Sadie Sink and Ty Simpkins, young actors I didn’t know before, play their roles with intensity, but also with theatrical excesses. The most natural and cinematic of them all seemed to me to be Hong Chau as Liz. Seeing Samantha Morton again is always a pleasure, even if her role is minor compared to her enormous talent. A number of issues are addressed in the film, each of which deserves more than attention: extreme addictions (food in this case), the conflict between religious morality and real life, gay men’s confrontation with prejudice and family crises when revealing their sexuality, family abandonment and the rupture which it produces in the souls of children and adolescents. It’s as if too many problems are gathered in the same conflict, and at some point the authors’ refusal to take a stand is confusing. Charlie, Ellie, Thomas, Liz have the best intentions, but their actions cause suffering to those around them. But there is another problem with the characters. Their text is too theatrical, the situations overly melodramatic. Perhaps, in this case, it would have been better if the adaptation for the cinema was not signed by the playwright who wrote the play. The finale tries to provide some redemption for the main character, but it doesn’t stick well with what we’ve seen up to that point. ‘The Whale’ is one of the most interesting films of 2022, an intense and disturbing film, but also unexpectedly confusing.