A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.
- Won 2 Oscars
- 50 wins & 122 nominations total
Allison Altman
- Young Mary
- (uncredited)
David Maire
- Dan the Pizza Man's Shadow
- (uncredited)
Lance Oppenheim
- Julian
- (uncredited)
Grace Perkins
- Maddie
- (uncredited)
Wilhelm Schalaudek
- Liam
- (uncredited)
Featured reviews
I looooved this movie. It is clearly based on a play, and if you can accept that from the start and just take it all in, this movie really takes you into emotional spaces i didn't expect.
At some parts I admittedly laughed when I shouldn't but when the film reaches culmination it's impossible to not be taken by the beautiful agony of this tale.
This will win a best lead Oscar and bc Aranofsky used so much restraint I suspect he will be snubbed but as with all his films I guarantee you wont be able to shake this movie off.
This is legit art and it will make you uncomfortable, but unlike Mother -- it will be totally justified in the end.
At some parts I admittedly laughed when I shouldn't but when the film reaches culmination it's impossible to not be taken by the beautiful agony of this tale.
This will win a best lead Oscar and bc Aranofsky used so much restraint I suspect he will be snubbed but as with all his films I guarantee you wont be able to shake this movie off.
This is legit art and it will make you uncomfortable, but unlike Mother -- it will be totally justified in the end.
I recomend this movie and authorize it as factual from my life standpoint. The doctors told me I only had 5 to 10 years left in me. It was suggested that Bariatric surgury is the only way things will change. Since December 27th, 2022, 6 months later, I am 220lbs. I have had diabetes. I no longer have diabetes since I changed my diet. I never knew how disgusting I was or how much food I ate in one day because the chemicals in the High Fructose Corn Syrup that soda contained were causing my addiction to drinking more soda. My house was filled with garbage on the ground, and I couldn't even wipe myself or turn around; I couldn't even fit in the car that well to drive.
I only drove my car to the doctor and had the groceries delivered. Watching these academy award winners on the big screen affected me emotionally because it reflected my life. It destroys me, showing my life from a different perspective. This is as real as it gets people; this exists, and this story has no fiction in it. My issues were PTSD, X's wife, and her taking my children away. My children are older now, and we are getting reconnected. I do not blame anyone else for my problems, only me. I cried when the Xwife wanted to hear his heart and lungs; that scene hit home and affected me in many ways. What about my daughter? Well, it's not been easy, she doesn't talk much to me, and I am only in her life when she needs something; like Fraiser, I saved up all the money for her.
Thank you for reading my review, The doctors now say that I might reach 90 now because of all the changes I made and hopefully I will witness a few grandchildren along the way. I am alive today because I made the choice to live. It was hard to make that choice because psychologically I didnt believe anything was wrong with me even though I was deathly ill. Makes me think.... Am I creating my own life simulation? AmI still deathly ill even though I am healthy again? How much do we take our lives for granted?
I only drove my car to the doctor and had the groceries delivered. Watching these academy award winners on the big screen affected me emotionally because it reflected my life. It destroys me, showing my life from a different perspective. This is as real as it gets people; this exists, and this story has no fiction in it. My issues were PTSD, X's wife, and her taking my children away. My children are older now, and we are getting reconnected. I do not blame anyone else for my problems, only me. I cried when the Xwife wanted to hear his heart and lungs; that scene hit home and affected me in many ways. What about my daughter? Well, it's not been easy, she doesn't talk much to me, and I am only in her life when she needs something; like Fraiser, I saved up all the money for her.
Thank you for reading my review, The doctors now say that I might reach 90 now because of all the changes I made and hopefully I will witness a few grandchildren along the way. I am alive today because I made the choice to live. It was hard to make that choice because psychologically I didnt believe anything was wrong with me even though I was deathly ill. Makes me think.... Am I creating my own life simulation? AmI still deathly ill even though I am healthy again? How much do we take our lives for granted?
I got to screen this film for awards season purposes.
It was very hard not to cry during several scenes.
Branden Fraser is simply amazing. Under direction of Aronofsky it's probably the best dramatic film of the year.
Fraser portrays the role to perfection. You feel sorrow for his character. The lady from Stranger Things that plays his daughter he is trying to reconnect with is going to be a huge star.
There is nothing unlikable about this film. Fraser tugs at your heart strings with the struggles his character goes through.
It's almost hard to watch at certain points in film; I had to take several breaks it's very emotional.
Fraser is a very genuine guy in real life I have met him twice a decade apart and he was the same amazing guy.
I hope this film does very well and ushers back a long awaited revival for Mr Fraser in Hollywood.
Brilliant actor & film.
10/10.
It was very hard not to cry during several scenes.
Branden Fraser is simply amazing. Under direction of Aronofsky it's probably the best dramatic film of the year.
Fraser portrays the role to perfection. You feel sorrow for his character. The lady from Stranger Things that plays his daughter he is trying to reconnect with is going to be a huge star.
There is nothing unlikable about this film. Fraser tugs at your heart strings with the struggles his character goes through.
It's almost hard to watch at certain points in film; I had to take several breaks it's very emotional.
Fraser is a very genuine guy in real life I have met him twice a decade apart and he was the same amazing guy.
I hope this film does very well and ushers back a long awaited revival for Mr Fraser in Hollywood.
Brilliant actor & film.
10/10.
Imagine that there was complete silence in the hall for 2 minutes after the end of the movie (The Whale). You don't come across something like that very often. Brendan Frazer, directed by Darren Aronofsky, gave an incredible, amazing performance. When you watching this movie, you felt certain feelings at once. Such films don't happen often, but when they do, they change the cinema for the better. This psychological drama about guilt, loss, and trauma is one of the best films of this year. I hope it wins all the awards it will be nominated for, most importantly in the best actor category ( Brendan Frazer). He will probably win.
There's a part of this movie that even before going in I was apprehensive about. Is it exploitative? More than probably, yes. Is it phobic in a certain way? It isn't impossible to think that. But being far removed from certain aspects of what the movie shows and yet being so close and feeling related to a lot of other things the movie portrays, I can only speak from what I got and felt about this movie.
Performances by Brendon Fraser, Sadie Sink and Hong Chau were absolutely fantastic. But that's something almost everyone knew even before going in. What really touched me was the detailing through which they showed why each character behaves in certain ways and how everything ended up this way. The absolute helplessness of humans under a system and subsystems across various levels of power that are meant to make life better creates more obstacles for everyone involved are arguably the root of the evils here. But the way each person deals with the evils they face is entirely different even when those reactions have so much in common. That is really reflected in each of the performances. Each of them shows a variety of emotions that are so humane and makes your heart break even more with the contrast between their philosophies on life and how life treats them.
For me, the film wanted to tell us that everyone is flawed, but it's the authenticity that should matter more than anything else which should be the road to happiness in life.
Performances by Brendon Fraser, Sadie Sink and Hong Chau were absolutely fantastic. But that's something almost everyone knew even before going in. What really touched me was the detailing through which they showed why each character behaves in certain ways and how everything ended up this way. The absolute helplessness of humans under a system and subsystems across various levels of power that are meant to make life better creates more obstacles for everyone involved are arguably the root of the evils here. But the way each person deals with the evils they face is entirely different even when those reactions have so much in common. That is really reflected in each of the performances. Each of them shows a variety of emotions that are so humane and makes your heart break even more with the contrast between their philosophies on life and how life treats them.
For me, the film wanted to tell us that everyone is flawed, but it's the authenticity that should matter more than anything else which should be the road to happiness in life.
Did you know
- TriviaFor the role, Brendan Fraser had to don a heavy prosthetic suit that he wore for hours. According to a piece in "Variety", he told members of the media in attendance at the Venice International Film Festival, "I developed muscles I did not know I had. I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed. It was like stepping off the dock onto a boat in Venice, that undulating. It gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are similar. You need to be an incredibly strong person, mentally and physically, to inhabit that physical being."
- GoofsCharlie nicks his skin when shaving, but the cut disappears in the next shots.
- Crazy creditsIn a possibly unique "thanks", the first credit in the movie is, "For Charlotte & Abe".
- ConnectionsFeatured in Projector @ LFF: The Whale (2022)
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $10,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $17,463,630
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $332,152
- Dec 11, 2022
- Gross worldwide
- $57,615,635
- Runtime
- 1h 57m(117 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content