The Whale was a superficial film that thinks it is trying to say something deep and empathetic about how humans treat each other, but instead, Darren Aronofosky's vision came off as tone-deaf, unempathetic, one-sided and base, with an extremely manipulative third act climax that tried to erase all that had happened prior with a committed and showy - and honestly, unexpectedly sincere and forceful - performance from Brendan Fraser.
That said, Fraser's role may be the loudest and showiest, and he is for sure the front-runner for the Best Actor Oscar for his transformative role - his comeback narrative and unexpected depth of performance definitely help in that regard too - but it was not the best acting from the cast.
Before him, we had Samantha Morton, who like her turn in She Said, truly was a force of nature in her single scene. She came in and immediately stole the spotlight and attention from Fraser, and then...exit stage right.
However, right at the top of the pack, was Hong Chau. She was incredible. She was magnetic and attention-grabbing without all the prosthetics and fat-suit; sincere and honest without the histrionics; a quiet, nuanced and highly engaging supporting performance that absolutely deserved recognition...and a win! Move aside Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu, the Oscar race should be Chau vs Angela Bassett with Kerry Condon as the dark horse.
This film was written by Samuel D. Hunter based off his own 2012 play, and this was another example of a stage-to-screen adaptation that perhaps should have been left on the stage.
Aronofsky's direction did it no favour as the whole film was essentially filmed on one set/location but yet it lacked the kinetic energy and immediacy of a stage performance. And also the intimacy. Further, his direction and Matthew Libatique's cinematography added to the pervading voyeurism of spectacle of Fraser's character's morbid obesity and binge eating. There were no empathy - or sympathy - to the lensing, instead what was offered up were cheap, immediate, visceral elicitation of disgust.
That brings us to the basic narrative of the storytelling. Everything on screen was superficial and one-dimensional and expository. These characters, beyond the dynamic portrayals by Chau and Morton, were cliched and eye-rolling inducing. The younger cast, Sadie Sink and Ty Simpkins, suffered the most from this as they tried to mine their characters for some depth which only showed in their one small scene together that did not somehow involve Fraser.
And then Aronofsky tried to salvage it all by having an explosive final act. Sure, that final act was a showcase for Chau, Morton and Fraser (and Sink - but not really), but the film really went all out with the emotional manipulation with the score by Rob Simonsen doing all the hard work to play and guide - more like drag - our emotions along until the face-palm moment of the closing seconds.
Maybe stick to this being a stage production.
Like I mentioned in the beginning, Aronofsky and Hunter thought they were trying to say something deep and profound about human behaviour, and maybe Hunter did in his original play, but on screen it was just a shallow wade in the baby pool.
