The main character in "The Whale" is killing himself in the slowest, most painful way he can think of.
It's more a filmed play than a movie and no one would call it perfect for the holidays but "The Whale" is an unusual character portrait. Charlie is an online teacher who is confined to the apartment where the entire movie takes place. Weighing 600 pounds and with blood pressure double the recommended level, Charlie joylessly wolfs down a bucket of chicken, as if it's his job rather than dinner. But the ray of hope in Darren Aronofsky's adaptation of Samuel Hunter's play is when Charlie says, "I need to know I have done one thing right with my life."
A series of people try to help Charlie. There's a nurse, played by Hong Chau, who gradually reveals other connections to her patient. There's his estranged daughter, who drops in to tell him to drop dead. There's the pizza delivery man, who speaks to Charlie through his door. And there's an evangelist who insists, "God brought me here for a reason."
All of those characters have secrets, which is one way "The Whale" feels more theatrical than cinematic, along with the conveniently timed entrances and exits into the set — er, Charlie's apartment. Just about everything in "The Whale" feels like a metaphor, something that works better in the theater, but it poses a bunch of interesting questions that can be interpreted in wildly different ways.
For instance, is the nurse helping Charlie or, since she accedes to his wish to avoid hospitals and often brings food, is she enabling him? When the vituperative daughter betrays the evangelist, is it to help him or hurt him? Is the main character's problem mental illness or something more pervasive? Is a "Moby Dick" essay that Charlie loves (it gives the film its title) the key to the whole thing because of its insistence that everything can be interpreted at least two ways?
One thing there's no question about is Brendan Fraser's committed, award-worthy performance as sad, desperate Charlie. The extensive prosthetics he wears could be a distraction but they're not. Fraser's choices are so subtly intelligent that we barely notice what amounts to his costume, so attuned are we to the way his Charlie teeters on the brink of life and death. He's an angry, fearful character and, somehow, he seems to be trying to take control of the only thing within his grasp.
Anyway, that's how I see "The Whale," which plays out like a horror movie in which the villain is already inside the victim when we meet him.
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'THE WHALE'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Rating: R (for language, some drug use and sexual content)
Running time: 1:57
How to watch: Now in theaters
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