Whale movie review brings out Brenden Fraser and Hong Chow

The Whale Movie review: Brilliant, poignant performances by Brendan Fraser and Hong Chow collide with an overdue story :

Whale Movie Review: Brendan Fraser and Hong Chow deliver stellar performances in Darren Aronofsky’s otherwise uneven drama, which feels like a stage enactment.

Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale is based on the crucial final days in the life of Charlie, an obese, reclusive professor played by Brendan Fraser. Separated from his ex-wife and daughter, his only human contact is Liz (Hong Chow), an overprotective friend who is also a nurse. While teaching a writing course online, he doesn’t even show his face to his students. Since the death of her boyfriend Alan, Charlie has been burying herself in grief and food. He has been repressing his emotions at the cost of his health, and now finds himself at an abyss. Suffering from congestive heart failure and a serious risk of high blood pressure, he refuses to go to the hospital, and instead focuses on repairing his relationship with his daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink).

But this is easier said than done as the irascible teenager hates his guts and only comes to see her father on the promise of money. While they try and fail to reconnect after eight years, Charlie struggles to convince Ellie what she means to him. Meanwhile, Liz tries to protect Charlie from his worst instincts as she entertains his meetings with Ellie as well as a young missionary named Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a lost soul. Gradually, screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter reveals Charlie’s painful past – his marriage to Mary (the excellent Samantha Morton), his love for Alan, and his fall into his current situation. Adapted from Hunter’s 2012 play of the same name, director Aronofsky restricted the main action to Charlie’s tiny apartment. Like him, we are trapped in a dark, dreary claustrophobic space. But it also means that, most of the time, the feature film feels like a staged play. The pace of the film feels sluggish at times and some of its more meaningful impact is lost when the film shies away for the young cast. Sink’s Ellie is both petty and manipulative when dealing with people, and she often looks red when interacting with her father. But despite Sink’s portrayal, Ellie mostly felt like a cliché of a child of divorce to me. Her vulnerability comes too late in the story, in the final moments of the film.