The Whale

The Whale centres on Charlie, an English teacher living alone in his apartment. He has isolated himself almost entirely, teaching writing courses online while keeping his camera off and having food delivered, and his health is failing because of severe obesity. The one person who visits him regularly is Liz, a nurse and friend who watches over his condition. When Charlie learns that his blood pressure has reached a level that could soon prove fatal, he declines treatment. Instead he decides to spend whatever time remains trying to rebuild a relationship with his teenage daughter Ellie, whom he left behind and who has not forgiven him.

Darren Aronofsky directed the film from a screenplay by Samuel D. Hunter, who adapted his own play. It was produced by A24 and Protozoa Pictures and was the eighth feature Aronofsky directed, following the 2017 release mother! Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, with Sadie Sink as Ellie, Hong Chau as Liz, Ty Simpkins as Thomas, Samantha Morton as Mary and Sathya Sridharan as Dan the Pizza Man. The production had a budget of 10 million dollars and took about 57 million dollars worldwide, a large return relative to its cost.

Audience response has been notably stronger than the critical one: on IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from roughly 280,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8 out of 10, while the critics' rating stands at 6.6 out of 10 from 348 reviews. The film runs 117 minutes.