Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Tk Simkins and Hong Chau

I don’t remember where I heard this, but memory is emotional. It’s not the most accurate thing, and the most impactful moments of any scene or event are often exaggerated through the repetition of reliving them relentlessly thereafter. For days following my screening of Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, the only memories left with me are relatively uneventful, but overwhelmingly destructive in their emotion.

Scenes in Charlie’s apartment, whose journey for closure spearheads the film’s narrative, are early and often unnerving and momentarily terrifying in their mundanity. Eating a footlong sub, moving from the couch to the sink, or even just sitting back down after he’s gotten up, Brendan Fraser’s performance relentlessly tears away at your heart as we watch in agony a man bearing his soul in the face of increasing personal expense.

Swaths of The Whale lean on Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, largely anchored by an early reveal that it’s the subject of Charlie’s favourite essay. With each reading diving deeper into its content and its relevance to the supporting cast, the imagery used in-between these readings is chilling. The apartment is rendered as close to a ship as Aronofsky could afford reality and anchored at its centre audiences won’t forget the frankly crude, yet deeply necessary, analogy as Fraser as the whale. His apartment spends the film doused in rain just as Ishmael’s ship was in the high waters, and the horrors found in its’ bedrooms… I’m not sure why I was so disturbed by the bedrooms specifically, but their rare usage and low lighting left an impact which words can’t describe.

The Whale is a little like The Lighthouse, in that both are both physically and mentally demanding. Very little happens throughout the week in which the film takes place; a life is lived in mediocrity, and small steps are made towards redemption. With every step in this journey, the fatigue of Charlie weighs heavier on audiences until it’s our turn too to get out of the seat we’ve embalmed to for the last two hours – and it isn’t easy.

There was no applause, no chatter, no sound as the credits rolled. The first person to leave their seat used both arms to hoist themselves up before exhaling a deep sigh and making way towards the exit. I didn’t have the strength to get up yet, I was too fixated on the emotion of Fraser’s performance. His blood-shot, sweat soaked, tear drenched eyes are going to stay with me for a long time. 

The Whale is showing in selected cinemas across Australia from February 2nd.

Moviedoc thanks Madman for the invite to the screening of this film.

Reviewed by Zak Wheeler for Moviedoc

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