“The Whale” is a heart-wrenching masterpiece. With a Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 91% and a critic score of 66%, it’s the story of Charlie, a morbidly obese man, as he struggles to do a final good deed before he dies. It’s about love and hate and utter despair.  

Starring Brendan Fraser as Charlie and Sadie Sink as his daughter Ellie, both give amazing performances. The movie is by no means a bedazzled blockbuster, but instead relies on the performances of the very few actors in it to tell its poignant story.  

Brendan Fraser reveals himself to be an exceptionally dramatic actor in this role. The role is not a glorious one. It’s embarrassing, gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking, and Fraser depicts this with an artist’s precision and nuance, making a character that could very easily be seen as a monster into a man.  

Sink’s character is erratic, tormented, and lost in life. The “Stranger Things” actress brings depth to the role, rendering Ellie as both a horrible person and yet someone endearing. Her performance makes us understand why Charlie loves Ellie despite all the horrible things she’d done. A lesser actress could not achieve such a feat. 

“The Whale” is one of those movies that hurts to watch not because it is bad but because it is so eerily authentic. It’s a movie so devastating that you may be able to watch it only once, but nonetheless you should watch it. This is the type of story that will make you glad to be alive. 

I will caution however, that if you have struggled with an eating disorder this may be a very triggering film to watch. The depictions of binge eating, while brutally honest, are disturbing in the extreme and may be difficult to watch.  

Self-destruction and despair are the main themes of the film and Charlie’s binge eating brings this to life in calamitous and grotesque clarity. This is a portrait of a man who is lost in grief and doesn’t know how to find his way home. He knows he is forever lost but, with his dying days, all he wants is to make sure that his daughter can find her way.  

The Whale is a thesis on despair. I encourage you to watch and listen to its messages and learn to be glad for life. Just know that you will not leave the theater with dry eyes.