Irvin Hernández attended the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia
TRIGGER WARNING: If you have a family member who has been diagnosed with any addiction disease or morbid obesity please be cognizant of the graphic images that are on display.
Where to start? How am I feeling after watching this film? Why am I so conflicted? Would I watch it again?
These are some of the questions that are lingering in my mind after watching Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. It's a brutally honest depiction not only of the medical condition but of the trauma that lies beneath. From the first scene, not even two minutes in, you have an idea that this film is not going to be uplifting and crowd-pleasing. Instead, it's an uphill battle for the main character and for any viewer who has ever dealt with morbid obesity or any form of addiction. Raw, brutal, heartbreaking; these adjectives don't even do justice to what’s on the screen here.
Whatever you've heard about Brendan Fraser’s performance, believe it. I have watched films since I was possibly four years old, and many of them. His performance is one that even if it’s not rewarded in this upcoming awards season, will stand the test of time as one of the best ever seen in cinema. In not even a single scene, Fraser wastes his time. Every single scene could be that “Oscar scene” that is played after his name is mentioned as a nominee. Playing an obese teacher struggling to reconnect with his wife while dealing with the loss of his partner is the only description of the plot needed to understand that this is not an uplifting story. But in the hands of Aronofsky and Fraser’s performance, makes for a grounded, poignant and compelling experience.
One of the things that Fraser said during the Q&A in the Middleburg Film Festival is that, in preparing for this role, he had video calls with morbid obesity patients. It helped him understand the process of treating such conditions. After experiencing the makeup and prosthetics to get himself into the body of an obese man, Fraser said "it's a Herculean effort for these patients to move with all that weight".
I tend to gravitate toward films that depict grief, loss, and mental health awareness and this one has me wrestling with some of the visual choices from the director and also from the screenwriter. The loss of time, the disconnection, compassion, empathy, and self-forgiveness are some of the important topics that are on display that at times get interrupted by abrupt character choices that at times confused me. I have to highlight the incredible supporting characters, especially Hong Chau's, who is undoubtedly a scene-stealer. Sadie Sink looks like a promising actress who will make her presence felt in every film she does. She is magnetic and you can’t keep your eyes off her.
My recommendation: Go into this film as blindly as possible.
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