Cinephile № 1,003 “The Whale”

Recommendation: 5/5 Stars, Showtime

Plot: “A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.” -IMDB

Review: Cinema is at its most powerful when it tells stories of people and characters who are often unseen. In these spaces, films can become a vehicle for empathy, delivering us into spaces and situations often misunderstood or ignored. The Whale is such a story.

Flipping through the channels, one doesn’t have to work too hard to stumble across programming about people struggling with their weight. In this search for “reality,” honest struggles, family dysfunction/dynamics, and a full picture are often missing. Hiding behind a black square on a video call, we meet Charlie (Brendan Fraser). Charlie is complex and reclusive. He is in love with the English language, passionate about inspiring the next generation of writers, and is desperate to see the best of everyone.

In the opening scenes, Charlie suffers a cardiac event. Without medical intervention, Charlie will die. His best friend in the world, Liz (Hong Chau), is a nurse. Long ago, she retired from any notion of Charlie going to a hospital. Knowing the end is near, she works desperately to make her friend comfortable in his last days, but the clock is ticking and never ceases. As an audience member, this clock…