"The Whale" is about an obese man named Charlie who doesn't care that he could die at any moment. However, if someone around him is sad or angry, he always finds a way to make their words sound positive. That's right: He's pessimistic and optimistic at the same time. And he has a best friend named Liz who talks to him with tough love, but she also enables his behavior. She's a nurse, but she smokes. All of these aspects might seem like contradictions, but they're actually layers. This had potential to be a very compelling story, but it often feels melodramatic, especially with Rob Simonsen's overbearing music score. The performances are very good, but there are one or two instances of unnatural exposition, and the way Ellie (Charlie's daughter) says shocking things gets old very fast. When she has a conversation with a missionary named Thomas, she admits she doesn't mean anything she's saying and her goal is to make him uncomfortable. The intention doesn't make the scene any less annoying. This is a stage-to-screen adaptation that doesn't feel cinematic. There have been plenty of other cases like this, but what's baffling is that Darren Aronofsky is the director. Whether you like or dislike his movies, you can’t deny that he's an auteur, but this movie feels like anyone could've been behind the camera. And no, staying true to his style wouldn't have been a distraction from the plot, characters and dialogue. "The Wrestler" proved that he can make a movie where the presentation has a lot of personality without being flashy. Here, pretty much every scene is presented in the most straightforward way possible. Andrew Weisblum's bad editing doesn't help.

 

6/10