The Whale is the very weight of existing

The Whale is a disturbing, suffocating film set in a dimly lit environment. One of the reasons for this invitation to anguish is the camera work of director of photography Matthew Libatique who, guided by the famously self-destructive hand of Darren Aronofsky, avoids any outdoor scene at all costs. The journey of protagonist Charlie (Brendan Fraser) goes, at most, as far as the balcony but never leaves it.

Most of the time, the director remains faithful to Samuel D. Hunter's play, not only in terms of the set design but also in terms of the stage style, as if we were watching a live performance. Therefore, the feeling experienced by the professor of being trapped at home and, ultimately, in his body is shared by all of us in the cinema.

Charlie teaches online writing classes for university assignments, and none of the students can see him because he turns off the camera on his laptop. We soon discover that the man has always been corpulent, but after his lover's suicide, his relationship with food "got out of control." The consequences are high blood pressure, heart arrhythmia, and severe mobility difficulties.

The film becomes an exercise in complicity where we share Charlie's corporeality, from his muffled breathing and tender, sad eyes to details of his anatomy deformed by obesity, which can be repugnant.

The story of The Whale takes place in a decisive week, in which several visits occur to try to change the character's fate: his friend and caregiver Liz (Hong Chau), a boring young missionary named Thomas (Ty Simpkins), and his daughter Ellie - from whom Charlie has distanced himself - played with pre-adolescent ferocity by Sadie Sink.

"Whale" is not just a metaphor for Charlie's oversized body but refers to a school assignment about Moby Dick, which the professor keeps as a talisman. The way the person who wrote the text, only revealed at the end of the film, talks about the novel's main character Ishmael's problems, as if describing Charlie's own life.