Samantha Koon

I’m not going to dive into the synopsis of the film because it is widely available online, and frankly, the film “shows” you the story so well that the brief synopsis wouldn’t do the story any justice. I want to applaud every single actor who played roles in this movie. Though I’m sure some acting professors may find criticisms in each of their ability, I believe that they all poured their hearts out playing these characters, the characters who are all fully justified of their own positions. With the origin of the film being a stage play, the film does everything in its power to keep the story intact without feeling the need to show everything, which is difficult to come by in our modern society where everything is shown, rather than told. The characters are symbolic to say the least. Even though Charlie (Brendan Fraser) and his obesity may seem like a fiction or a non-fiction, it ultimately does not matter. After all, obesity is simply one of the health outcomes that we witness in our lives. One could easily replace Charlie’s obesity with something else and they would end up with the same results as far as the story goes. And Charlie’s not the only character who carries this symbol. Not only is every character in this story symbolic, each one is absolutely justified AND self-righteous. It’s an endless loop that the characters have entrapped themselves in and there is no room for escape. With the unconventional display ratio of the film (not the usual 16:9 ratio), it feels like watching a personal diary that’s filled with self-deprecation, frustration, and sheer agony that is inside a tight box. It is a tough pill to swallow as an audience, but a necessary one as it tells the tale that everyone needs to listen and comprehend. The film is not preachy to motivate the audience members to be proactive, but rather simply feeds us different combinations of characters’s stories and make us think. That is why I think it is completely pointless to finger at any flaws or imperfections as it only illustrates the humanity behind our perfect selfies and posts. After two hours of the film (and ugly-crying for an hour and 30 minutes of it), I started to think how I would describe this film through an analogy. Aesop’s fable of the North Wind and the Sun encapsulates the totality of experience from watching The Whale: at the end of the day, it wasn’t the powerful North Wind who led the individual to take off their cloak, but rather it was the calmly, yet intensely present Sun’s ray. Instead of the fast dynamic of a storm, this film consistently kept on twisting our guts. It continued to linger with both of us long after the film was over, and dare I say that it will remain with us for a long time. Films like this are neither easy to watch, nor easy to come by. The ugliness of humanity shows up in many forms and shapes that we cannot ignore or escape from them. Maybe if we let go of our self-righteousness, and maybe if we stopped giving into the hubris that the characters in this film commit to, maybe, just maybe the potential of humanity might expand and shake the world a bit more. Salute to all the actors, the director, the writer, the creative professionals for bringing this film into our world!