THE WHALE

Name: THE WHALE
Item: THE WHALE
Author: Gaby Gaduh

"Homosexual Teacher Suffers from Morbid Obesity"

Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

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What You Need To Know:

THE WHALE is a drama starring Brendan Fraser as an obese, homosexual English teacher named Charlie. Throughout the movie, Charlie struggles to live everyday life, while also trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. Charlie is an online college professor who turned to binge eating after the death of his homosexual partner, Alan. As a result, he loses touch with his rebellious daughter who’s on the verge of being kicked out of school. Charlie tries to reconnect with his daughter, but his morbid obesity could lead to death by the end of the week if he doesn’t seek help. Meanwhile, he’s visited by an evangelistic missionary who wants to save his soul.

THE WHALE is an adaptation of a 2012 stage play by the same name. At its core, it tells a message of love, primarily self-love. However, it’s marred by excessive foul language, graphic dialogue about sex and violence, disturbing images of vomiting and self-harm involving food, and abhorrent pro-homosexual elements attacking Christian faith. Despite lots of media hype for the movie, media-wise viewers and other moviegoers will find THE WHALE unacceptable.

Content:

(PaPa, B, HoHoHo, ABAB, LLL, VV, SS, N, AA, DD, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed worldview elements, themes of compassion and self-love as an answer to life’s trials, a man’s homosexuality and obesity are two points of struggle, while his Christian background is alluded to as a cause for his current traumatic circumstances, plus there’s a negative portrayal of an evangelistic Christian missionary

Foul Language:

Heavy foul language includes about 30 “f” words, plus “s” words and other obscenities, JC and GD and OMG profanities, and homosexual slurs, plus scenes of vomiting and morbid obesity and vulgar conversations about sex

Violence:

Graphic scenes of self-harm, discussions of suicide and death, a bloated body is shown washing up on shore, vulgar discussions of rape,

Sex:

Opening scene shows a man watching gay porn and pleasuring himself, graphic discussions of sex, and many discussions about homosexual relationships

Nudity:

Upper male nudity in shower, and in brief scene of homosexual porn (not graphic)

Alcohol Use:

Characters talk about drinking alcohol, and a character is an implied alcoholic

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No tobacco use but underage teenager smokes marijuana; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Food binging scenes are intentionally intense and shot almost like a horror movie.

More Detail:

THE WHALE is a new movie from director Darren Aronofsky that explores faith, the body, depression, despair and more.

Charlie, played by Brendan Fraser, is an online college professor. However, none of his students have seen him, as Charlie keeps his camera off due to his severe obesity. Although Charlie is ashamed to show himself on camera, he also is stuck in his addiction to binge-eating and other self-harm activities involving food.

The viewers learn that his partner, Alan, died. In his grief, Charlie turns to eating. In the process, he loses touch with his rebellious daughter who’s on the verge of being kicked out of school. In the midst of his depression, Charlie desperately tries to reconnect with his daughter, but his weight and horrible health make it difficult even to leave his couch.

Charlie is visited by an evangelical missionary who wants to help Charlie’s soul, but due to his homosexuality and past with religion, that too alienates Charlie from the rest of the world. However, through compassion and self-love, could Charlie have a second chance?

THE WHALE was written by Samuel D. Hunter who wrote the original stage play from 2012. The movie and the stage play have some distinct differences like the missionary being changed from Mormon to evangelical for the movie, as well as the setting.

In an interview with Hunter, the writer revealed that the story reflects much of his upbringing, where he cites his trauma from fundamentalist Christian religion and being a homosexual man that was overweight. For this reason, the Christian imagery is seen as alienating for the main character, Charlie.

While the movie preaches compassion, some of the cinematography and music could be seen as manipulative. In one food binge scene, it’s shot almost like a horror movie. This doesn’t align with the movie’s point about showing compassion toward severely obese people.

THE WHALE is an adaptation of a 2012 stage-play by the same name. While at its core is a message of love, primarily self-love, the movie’s marred by excessive foul language, graphic dialogue about sex and violence, and disturbing images of vomiting and self-harm involving food. Movieguide® advises strong caution for all audiences.