Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Whale Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 12, 2023

The 95th Academy Awards are scheduled to air in just a few hours as this review is being published, and many online data aggregators more or less agree that Brendan Fraser is a near lock to win the Best Actor category for The Whale. Anyone who has ever struggled with weight (and I count myself among those ranks) might shake their head in wonderment at the thought of actors deliberately putting on pounds to essay a role, and while Fraser benefited from both CGI and prosthetics to achieve the disturbing vision of a 600 pound English teacher named Charlie, as is quite evident from candid shots of the actor taken both during production and after, he did in fact "help" things along with a bit of his own "padding", which one assumes is now going to have come off courtesy of some strict dieting. Fraser's performance, along with those of Hong Chau (also Oscar nominated for this performance) and Sadie Sink in particular, help this film to elide some at times clunky and overly theatrical writing (the project began life as a play, and playwright Samuel D. Hunter wrote the adapted screenplay).

Charlie is a morbidly obese recluse living in a tiny apartment in northern Idaho (virtually the entire film takes place within the claustrophobic confines of Charlie's domicile, and the making of featurette included on this disc as a supplement details the challenging of keeping things "cinematic" within such a confined environment). He teaches an online English course via a Zoom like interface, though he is careful to always keep the camera on his laptop off, so as to not invite comments from his students about his appearance. Just the first of several frightening health scares suddenly erupts when Charlie seems to be having a heart attack while "home alone", until a veritable Deus ex Machina knock at the door ushers in Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a "door to door" missionary who is perhaps surprisingly (given this film's Idaho locale) not a Mormon, though semi-hilariously (at least for those of us who grew up in that general vicinity), Charlie's estranged daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) immediately thinks he is LDS when she finds out he's visiting her father to aid in his spiritual development.

The small cast is filled out mostly courtesy of Charlie's aide, Liz (Hong Chau), a nurse who it is ultimately revealed has a heartbreaking personal connection to Charlie, and one that ties in to both Charlie's eating disorder, homosexuality and the nearby "New Life" church that Thomas is proselytizing on behalf of. It's here that The Whale probably most overtly reveals its stage bound genesis, as this intersection, while dramatically potent, is also kind of incredible in the literal meaning of that word. The bulk of the film details Charlie's fitful attempts to reconnect with Ellie, whom he more or less abandoned when she was a little girl after Charlie left his ex-wife Mary (Samantha Morton) for a (male) student of his.

The personal relationships in the film, especially those between Charlie and Liz and Charlie and Ellie, often ring true, even if the overall context here is a little wobbly at times. The ultimate connection between Charlie, Liz and Charlie's male partner is at the crux of a lot of the emotion of the film, but the whole sidebar of a homophobic church in the neighborhood gives things a kind of odd angle that never really feels organically woven into the story, despite the fact that Hunter attempts to tether Liz's backstory into the church. More contextually convincing is the fraught relationship between Charlie and Ellie, and Fraser and Sink really play off of each other beautifully in several "two hander" scenes. Some of the supplements seem to suggest that Ellie is some kind of "avenging angel" (and/or demon), but I'd argue the film is actually at least relatively balanced in portraying a teen girl who is obviously dealing with any number of "issues" (along with being estranged from Charlie, it turns out Mary is an alcoholic), but who is trying to find her own way as best she can.

Ultimately, though, the film belongs to Fraser, and my personal hunch is he will indeed prevail at the Academy Awards festivities which are scheduled to air in just a few hours as I'm typing this sentence. Fraser is unabashedly disturbing from a physical standpoint, but it's the sweetness and vulnerability he brings to Charlie that really helps to bring the character fully alive. There have of course been complaints about Fraser donning a "fat suit" to play a morbidly obese character, and evidently some have insisted a real morbidly obese performer should have been hired to play the role, which brings to mind a quote by an actor friend of mine who had been subject to "cancelling" due to a "questioned" performance of his, where he responded, "As an actor, I promise to never pretend to be something I'm not again". (That's a joke, for the humor impaired.)

The film is also technically quite interesting, and in that aforementioned making of supplement included on this disc Darren Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique discuss some of the challenges in shooting in a small, cloistered space while at the same trying to keep things visually interesting. Aronofsky overtly mentions "returning" to repeated uses of dollies, which help to keep the visuals kinetic, even if Charlie himself is largely confined to sitting on a couch, unable to really move very freely.

The Whale Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Whale is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films and A24 with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. According to the IMDb, Sony CineAlta cameras were utilized and the DI was finished at 4K. As can probably easily be made out in the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, this is an intentionally drab and often underlit presentation that is not exactly "eye candy", but which preserves typically excellent detail levels throughout, at least when lighting conditions allow. The entire film has been graded somewhat unusually toward a kind of ochre or peach tone, and that when combined with a noticeable dusting of digital grain, can occasionally mask fine detail levels, again especially in some of the lower light situations. The film only very rarely ventures outside of Charlie's apartment, and then only for a second or two, but detail levels on things like Charlie's balding head or even some of the fabrics on his couch are precisely rendered. This is another Blu-ray from Lionsgate that exhibits noticeable banding on the studio masthead at disc boot up, but I noticed no issues with the feature itself. My score is 4.25.

The Whale Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Kind of interestingly, at least given the downright claustrophobic ambience of the film, the closing credits roll offer a Dolby Atmos logo, though this disc features only DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The surround activity is often quite subtle, but Rob Simonsen's elegiac score certainly fills the side and rear channels convincingly, and a number of ambient environmental effects, like the flutter of wings of a bird Charlie feeds from an apartment window, help to establish spatial relationships. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Whale Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• People Are Amazing: Making The Whale (HD; 24:33) is an above average featurette with several good interviews with the principal cast and crew.


• Sounds of the Ocean: Scoring The Whale (HD; 7:41) features composer Rob Simonsen.

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

The Whale Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is the very paradigm of a so-called "actors' piece", and the performances in the film are its ultimate calling card. Hunter's screenplay is occasionally too mannered and at times kind of almost ridiculous, as evidenced by some of the interplay between Ellie and Thomas in particular, but even with these occasional stumbling blocks, the cast does really remarkable work. Technical merits are generally solid, though one simply needs to accept the kind of dreary visual style Aronofsky brings to the enterprise. The longer making of supplement is also very well done. With caveats noted, and for the performances in particular, The Whale comes Recommended.