Synopsis
A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Brendan FraserCharlie
- Sadie SinkEllie
- Ty SimpkinsThomas
- Hong ChauLiz
- Samantha MortonMary
- Sathya SridharanDan the Pizza Man
- Jacey SinkYoung Ellie
- Allison AltmanYoung Mary (uncredited)
- Wilhelm SchalaudekLiam (uncredited)
- Lance OppenheimJulian (uncredited)
Recommendations
- 100
The Telegraph
Fraser’s casting is so moving in part because we can still recognise this beloved figure under the blubber, but it’s also because Fraser’s own performance doesn’t court pity. His Charlie is complex, flawed, funny and otherwise fully and radiantly human: a rounded character in more ways than one. - 91
The Playlist
What it boasts in abundance — in this riveting study of a deeply broken man, suffocated by nine years of self-immolation — is a rare and deep compassion, elevated by Fraser’s starring turn. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
The intense chamber drama never disguises its stage roots but transcends them with the grace and compassion of the writing and the layers of pain and despair, love and dogged hope peeled back in the central performance. Fraser makes us see beyond the alarming appearance to the deeply affecting heart of this broken man. - 83
The Film Stage
The Whale is Aronofsky at his most trimmed down. - 80
The Independent
The pathos is laid on very thick. At times, you wonder why a filmmaker as sophisticated as Aronofsky is resorting to such manipulative tactics. Beneath all its blubber, though, this turns out to be a film with a very big heart. - 80
Screen Daily
For all his shame, and the shuttered windows and disconnected webcams that block out the world outside, there’s a magnetism to Charlie and his big, overburdened heart which draws others – and us, as an audience – to him. - 67
IndieWire
For Fraser, The Whale is a confident leap forward into the movie-star status that he rightfully deserves. - 60
Slashfilm
The Whale" stays too intellectual in its exploration of the physical and spiritual dimensions of redemption to and from bodily captivity. This comes at the expense of the director's strengths in the visceral realm. It restricts what could have been a truly great comeback performance from Brendan Fraser into being merely a good one.
