The Whale
I just finished watching "The Whale" starring Brendan Fraser. It tells the heartbreaking story of a man who struggles with obesity and other health complications, you soon realize he has a strained relationship with his daughter, along with his ex-wife, it also shows that his only friend is a nurse who comes by his house to check up on him. Soon a guy stops by from a church to his house repeatedly, saying he wants to help Charlie the main character.
At first, you wonder why Charlie refuses to go to the hospital to get help, but about halfway through the film, you realize that Charlie knows that he's dying, it's only a matter of time. He tries to reconnect with his daughter, Ellie, which at first she resists because he left her and her mom when she was 8 years old for a man he fell in love with. He finally gets around to asking his daughter how her mom is doing (his ex-wife), Ellie finally tells him that her mom drinks a lot. Later, he checks on Ellie's Facebook, and he soon realizes that she has no friends and that she's very lonely. You basically realize that both his daughter and his ex-wife are hurting and suffering from him leaving him all those years ago.
It also shows Charlie teaching an online class for writing, that he doesn't show his face to his students, and that he cares deeply for his students and helps them with writing and encourages them to be honest with their work. At one point, his daughter Ellie comes by, telling him how she's failing her classes, and her teacher tells her that if she does very well in one of her classes, she might be able to pass the class. He then offers to help her with her homework and leave her all of the money that he has, in her writing class, essentially he ends up writing her papers for her, in return he asks her to write something for him in a notebook he gives her. Later he checks on the notebook he gave Ellie to write in, and he sees that she only wrote three sentences in the notebook. He tells her later to try to write more in the notebook for him, which she scoffs and ignores his request, she then keeps pestering and asking him to finish her papers, and by the end of the film though, when he gives her, her papers back, she is very disappointed.
As for the friend who's a nurse, named Liz, towards the middle of the film, you see how she feels conflicted for trying to take care of Charlie, and how she keeps feeding him unhealthy food, despite knowing how bad his health is. Basically, Charlie's health is so bad, that both Liz and Charlie know that he's probably going to pass away within the week. At one point, Charlie's ex-wife comes over to visit, and confronts Charlie in front of his daughter, saying that she knows that plans to leave Ellie all of his money. Liz gets mad and storms out, realizing that Charlie wasn't leaving anything to her, his ex-wife then screams at their daughter, pushing her out of the house. His ex-wife Mary, tells him how their daughter is "evil", he doesn't believe her, she then opens his laptop, and shows him what Ellie posted about him, instead of him being hurt, he is amused of how honest she was, about how she felt about her father. It shows that Charlie values honesty from people, of how he wasn't offended by what his daughter said about him.
At one point Charlie and Liz were talking, and he basically says that he believes that there's good in everyone and that he has hope for people, while Liz thinks that no one can save anyone, showing how Liz view's on life are more cynical, while Charlie view's life with more hope. With his ex-wife Mary you realize that she doesn't mean no harm, but that she's tried her best with raising her daughter Ellie, and that in some way she and Charlie still care for each other even though they aren't together anymore. It also shows how Mary feels just as hurt as Ellie for Charlie leaving all those years ago, and that his decision left a huge impact on both their lives, yet when you look at it from Charlie's point of view, he left Mary and Ellie because he fell in love with a man, and he just wanted to be happy with him. Yet towards the end of the film, he acknowledges that his decision hurt both Mary and Ellie and that what he did was wrong, he tells Ellie at the end of the film, that he's sorry for what he did, and that he wishes he could have been a part of her life, and that she's the best thing he ever did. He then asks Ellie to read an essay she wrote called, "The Whale" by the time she's done reading it, it's implied by then, that Charlie has passed away.
In conclusion, "The Whale" leaves viewers with a strong reminder of the power of empathy and the enduring resilience of the human spirit. Through Charlie's journey, we are reminded that even in the face of immeasurable odds, redemption and healing are always within reach.
Despite how heartbreaking this film is, this was one of the best films that I have ever seen, I wouldn't highly recommend it to anyone. I give the film a 10/10!
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