I hate-watched The Whale last night.
I told myself that I wouldn’t pay money to watch it, but I noticed that it was streaming on a service I was already paying for. Yes, I know the whole royalties per stream, but that’s still way less than what a movie ticket would have cost. Anyway, here’s my review, there’s spoilers, so read at your own risk. But also, please read at your own risk if fatphobia is triggering too.
The Whale is complete trash.
The acting was all-around mediocre. The ex-wife was horrible, felt very forced. Charlie’s daughter was not good. His nursing aide/ friend wasn’t great. Charlie, he was just there. I adore Brendan Fraser. He’s a solid actor and has that weird attractiveness that works for him. He’s been through a lot too. I like him, so I’m not saying he wasn’t great just because, but he just wasn’t good here. The basics were ok- setting, design, lighting, costume, all those things. Nothing really stuck out one way or another. It was just, there. But, I can see why people love this movie and have a theory of why people praised him for this role.
The Whale is a wet dream for the skinnies. The skinnies/fatphobic’s have this stereotypical view of fat people, especially obese folks. They think we just sit around feeling sorry for ourselves, who are dirty, messy and just gorge ourselves with food 24/7. They hate us to the point where every chance they get, they wish death on us in one way or another. The Whale gave them all of that and more.
The movie opens with Charlie jerking off to gay porn and pretty much has a heart attack when he cums. I learned today from Feabie, that when men get to that size, most can’t even jerk off in that position Charlie was in, so already we’re off to a great start. Charlie mentioned having mold and rashes on him, alluding to the fact that he barely bathes. His clothes visibly look dirty and grease stained. When he’s eating, naturally he’s making a mess, getting grease all over him, and even eating so fast he chokes. His “friend”/nurse is of course his enabler, while also resenting that he’s about to die. The daughter hates him and makes fun of him for being fat. The ex-wife is pretty much the same- hates that he left her for a man. Funny, she misses his cooking. At the end of the week, he dies in front of his teenage daughter. Oh, there was this stoner missionary who tries to convert him, I guess to make himself feel better, like those people usually do.
There was this overall theme/allegory per se of Moby Dick. Yes, I majored in English and never read Moby Dick, but I’m also not living under a rock. They went hard and deep when it came to bringing up Moby Dick. Every time Charlie thought he was going to die, he reads this part of an essay about Moby Dick, which we learn is his daughter’s. Which honestly, is weird because right after he climaxes, he reads it. Honestly, I think they could of done better, found a less obvious story to base this one on. Another literary theme is “writing one’s truth”, which is rich considering this movie lacks original thought.
The Whale is an extended version of My 600lb Life, but just with professional actors. You can’t change my mind.
But the thing with The Whale, the big climax in their wet dream, is his death. This is what they want for all of us, and it’s exactly what they get. What fatphobic person doesn’t want to see that? I’ll wait.
My whole theory on why Brendon Fraser got so much praise? He played a fat person. Not just any fat person, but a gross, morbidly obese fat person. No one ever wants to play a person like that. Very few people would want to play a character they despise as much as a fat person. I mean, a racist character can always change, a serial killer is even redeemable. But a fat person, something that really challenges the skinnies, is the worst of the worst. It’s not that he was horrible in this movie, but he also wasn’t amazing. And that CGI fat suit? Laughable. There was a scene where he was jiggling just a bit too much for it to be realistic.
As I said earlier, I understand why it got such high praise. I saw the points people saw, however, that doesn’t outweigh the whole taking every obese stereotype and putting it in the movie. Art is art, and people are going to piss some people off, I get that, but things like this, it pisses off such a large group of people (pun not intended) and stirs up so much more hate and fatphobia against us. Maybe the play was better, but I have my doubts. This is such a toxic movie that the fight against fatphobia back some. Y’all remember the movie Precious? Well, for years I got compared to her. This movie is going to do the same thing to people, and that’s going to do so much harm.
The only thing I liked about this movie, was that Charlie was an English professor. Thats it.
If you struggle with any sort of fatphobic trauma, I’m sure you already know not to watch this movie. But even if you want to hate watch it like I did, don’t. Save your time and your emotions- this movie isn’t worth fucking up your day with anger.
1/10