Review of The Whale (2022) by Jcharvard — 21 Mar 2023

There are way too many faults in the logic of this film’s themes & characterizations to discuss, even trying to forget the blatantly gratuitous wallowing in obese grotesquery & pointlessly incessant self-loathing and self-pity displayed by every character. What’s Charlie’s motivation? He longs to finally see & interact with his daughter, Ellie, but wants to die as soon as possible. Why? All the talk of "honesty" & goodness, yet why does he equate his salvation with such a crassly materialistic deed as bequeathing $120K to this ungrateful daughter?

But Ellie is unremittingly awful, not just to herself & her father, but EVERYONE. Sink’s interpretation takes it far beyond the cynical teen cliché. Her jaded, anti-social cruelty borders on the psychopathic, which is apparent to all but Charlie, who maintains a delusional view of his Ellie’s “amazingness”? After knocking out her father with Ambien, Ellie maliciously betrays the confidence of a boy she apparently just befriended. Why? Ironically, Charlie, again delusional, interprets this as Ellie’s attempt to “save” the boy, after the betrayal inadvertently ends happily for him. His obsession with the atrocious Ellie is nauseatingly pathetic: he even gushes when he pretentiously perceives her misanthropic scribbling as a “haiku”.

However, the film’s biggest flaw is the entire Moby Dick conceit, a facile, symbolic equation of Ahab’s quest with Charles’ mission to save his daughter: Ellie as Moby Dick, angrily crashing into the Pequod of her colossal father’s bulwark. However, do we really need Moby Dick to facilitate this hackneyed metaphor? There is absolutely NO convincing or worthy purpose for pompously appropriating Moby Dick’s imagery in this film at all (while ignoring its themes of fate versus self-determination). Worse, Charlie endlessly repeats Ellie’s childish, non-interpretation of Melville’s novel, as if it were a precious, life-affirming litany. Ellie’s “essay” is no more perceptive than her damning “haiku” opus: in both she is asserting that there is essentially no point in anything, which presumably includes writing Moby Dick in the first place, because it’s all just a distraction from simply “being”(?). Behold, Honesty in all its banality.

Unfortunately, the film distracts us with morbid obesity, Moby Dick & a futile family reunion, when there is a more profound & sadder subject: Charlie’s past relationship with his lost lover Alan. The deeper tragedy is neatly encapsulated when Thomas confronts Charlie to joyfully preach that he can be “saved” when he dies, as the sins of the” flesh”, i.e. Charlie’s homosexuality, will be forgiven because he has a good heart beneath all that flesh. Charlie rejects this Last Judgement bombast that impugns what he is & what he loved, but is nonetheless forgivingly tolerant of Thomas’ insensitivity, given its sincerity.

However, Charlie also discovers that Thomas’ unwelcome revelation comes after his reading highlighted verses in Alan’s old bible. We realize at this moment what Charlie probably already knew but was striving to suppress: that Alan was tormented with guilt about his homosexual affair with him. Charlie cannot accept the fact that religious dogma had created a schism in Alan’s bond with him; that there was anything but pure honesty & happiness in their love. Is guilt over this star-crossed romance the genuine root of Charlie’s search for salvation? Despite the clarity of this moment, Charlie, & apparently the film makers, quickly turn away, preferring illusion & heartwarming platitudes over unpleasant truths.

The absurdity is extended when Charlie obscenely implores his students to send him something that’s “honest” (as opposed to well-crafted & showing that they’ve learned something). He is foolishly ecstatic at the blatantly pathetic results. There is no expected epiphany – do the film makers presume the audience shares Charlie’s ludicrous enthusiasm? Most depressing is a student’s cynically “honest” confession: “I’m tired of being told that I have promise”. How Charlie is unable to discover an echo of this in his own assessment of his daughter, i.e. a direct reflection of his own worshipful misbelief in Ellie's “greatness” & his imagined redemption, is the real tragedy unwittingly realized by the film’s creators.

Perhaps “honesty” is really Charlie’s Moby Dick. Ironically, his pursuit of it merely sucks Charlie down into a pathetic maelstrom of self-deception instead. The thoughtful viewer eventually realizes that genuine “honesty” implies some form of profound human insight. Regardless of whether Charlie has discovered the truth or not, he is given a finale that rewards him with pure fantasy. The film leaves us with nothing more than an insipid coda, devoid of recognition or proper salvation – that & an empty, disgusting fat suit.