the whale — brendan fraser

reflection — nov. 2. 2024

WARNING — SPOILERS

The Whale is an extraordinary film, blending a well-crafted script with deeply moving storytelling. Brendan Fraser’s performance is particularly remarkable, capturing the raw humanity of his character with heartbreaking precision.

General Synopsis

The film follows Charlie, a reclusive English teacher grappling with profound personal struggles during the final week of his life. His journey unfolds through themes of guilt, redemption, and isolation, manifested in his relationships with those around him.

Initially, Ellie (his daughter) visits Charlie only because her mother forces her to. Their strained relationship evolves into something more complex—Ellie manipulates him for money, yet Charlie persists in seeing the good in her. Over time, his unconditional love begins to soften her resentment, breaking through Ellie’s wall. Regaining Ellie’s emotional grief, losing her father when he separated from her mother.

Charlie’s locked room and hidden past slowly unravel closer to the end of the film by a young man from the New Life Church. Thomas insists he was "sent by God" to save Charlie and stumbles into a room in his house that was locked away. Revealing that he is gay and the room belonged to Alan, his partner, who was dead. Later, we learn Thomas is Alan’s estranged son, adding painful layers to their interactions. The film implies that Alan’s religious guilt and rejection by his church contributed to his despair.

Liz, Charlie’s fiercely protective caretaker, battles between enabling his self-destructive eating and desperately trying to keep him alive out of love for both him and her late brother. Due to Charlie’s medical condition, caused by congestive heart failure and compulsive eating, his life expectancy was low. Liz tries her best to save him, but falls into deep conflicts with her emotional connection to Charlie.

Despite Charlie’s suffering, he prioritizes the needs of others, even as they exploit him: Ellie for money, Liz for companionship, and Thomas for absolution.

A Cathartic Release

In the final moments, Charlie begs Ellie to read her school essay about Moby-Dick. Reluctantly, she does, and her words—about the whale being misunderstood as a "dumb beast"—strike a profound chord. Overwhelmed, Charlie forces himself to stand for the first time in years, bathed in ethereal light, which was later thought to be a hallucination before he passed away. The film leaves his fate ambiguous, but the imagery suggests a spiritual release from his pain and shame.

Brendan Fraser

Fraser’s role as Charlie marked a triumphant return after years of Hollywood exile. In 2018, he revealed he had been sexually assaulted by Philip Berk (former HFPA president) and subsequently blacklisted. Like Charlie, Fraser was failed by systems meant to protect him, his career derailed, and left to deal with his trauma alone.

Watching Fraser pour his own vulnerability into Charlie’s character adds another layer of poignancy. Both are men who endured suffering, were discarded by those who should have supported them, and yet sought redemption.

Charlie’s story resonated with me on a deeply personal level. Growing up in a Mexican-American household as the eldest daughter, I was forced into caretaking roles that robbed me of my childhood. The cultural expectations of womanhood, compounded by my parents’ divorce, left me shouldering burdens I never chose.

Like Charlie, I was used, not out of malice, but because of systemic flaws. My parents repeated the cycles they were raised in, just as Charlie’s loved ones projected their needs onto him. But where Charlie succumbs to his pain, I’ve chosen self-reflection and breaking those cycles. His tragic end is a haunting reminder of what could have been had I not fought for my own healing.

The Whale is a devastating yet beautiful exploration of human frailty. It exposes how greed, manipulation, and unresolved trauma distort relationships, but also how love, flawed as it may be, can persist in the darkest corners. Fraser’s performance, my own lived experiences, and Charlie’s heartbreaking journey coalesced into a film that left me shattered yet profoundly moved. Its message lingers: even in our brokenness, we yearn to be seen, to matter, to finally step into the light.