The Whale

"Weird Al" Yankovic always seeks the permission of the original artist when he does a parody. On occasion, this produced a most unexpected result. When he sought permission from Mark Knopfler to satirize Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing" for the movie UHF, Knopfler said yes, but with one condition: he played guitar. Al has always prided himself on making his song parodies technically accurate to the original. This was a problem because Knopfler had been performing the song live on tour for a couple years at this point, so his playing on the recorded parody sounds looser and less technically precise. It is not sloppy; it is just someone so familiar with the material, time and comfortability has worn down the cutting edge. I bring this up because that's the one big problem with Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. This is him covering himself, but looser and with less precision. The Whale is a near beat-for-beat remake of The Wrestler. That doesn't mean The Whale is bad. Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Samantha Morton all do an excellent job telling the story of a morbidly obese shut-in who is dying of heart failure, refuses to allow treatment, and just wants to correct some mistakes he's made. The direction is fantastic, the acting is incredible, everything here is done with excellence. I know I've seen some criticism of it being manipulative, which hey, guess what, movies are SUPPOSED TO manipulative your emotions, that's how suspension of disbelief works!!! Another issue I see is it being called fat-phobic, which, sorry, no, it isn't; it presents a real life example of the consequences of being dangerously obese. He hates his appearance more than anybody around him does. For everything this movie does right, it deserves the accolades it got. It's just that the one thing it does wrong is be an inferior cover version of a movie by the same director. Both movies feature a main character whose physical condition has deteriorated due to self-abuse. Both of them suffer from heart issues threatening their lives if they don't take corrective action. Neither of them are interested in doing that, but it is why in which one movie stands above the other. In The Wrestler, Randy can barely make ends meet. Once a superstar selling out stadiums, he's now taking body slams on thumbtacks in front of 50 people for gas money, while he works in a grocery store deli. His inability to let go of his past glory is partially driven by need, but also by his inability to accept he's no longer a star. We can see the cause and effect. The Whale gives us a cause and effect -- Charlie's boyfriend kills himself -- and the effect -- over-eating -- but it doesn't draw a link between the two. Why not promiscuity? Why not gambling? Why not heroin? The movie attempts a passing acknowledgment by saying "I was always a big guy", but that lip service doesn't really connect the dots to give Charlie and his self-destructive patterns depth. They fulfill a plot point, but they lack a connection to the character and the story. This is further evidences by the overall demeanors of the two leads. Both try to have a good heart, but often stumble on their own inadequacies. Both view someone else in their life as a lifeline (for Randy, an aging stripper at a local topless joint, for Charlie, his friend/nurse/sister of his dead boyfriend). But Randy's feels grounded; he still wants to be that Hulk Hogan-like role model for kids, but the kids don't really know who he is. He's gotta work in the ring, but he's on a ton of drugs to do it, which affects his health and mood. Charlie, by contrast, sees everyone and everything around him as "amazing" (don't make a drinking game of him saying "amazing", you will need 911 before the movie is over); he may have personal issues, but he is so serene and tender and supportive of everyone around him, no matter what anyone says or does, he feels like a human inspirational poster or fortune cookie. Randy gets angry when he's rejected; Charlie goes "well, that's okay, because I see the good in them". One feels like a human being, and one doesn't quite. That extends to the other people. Both movies feature estranged daughters who are bitter and resentful about being abandoned. In The Wrestler, Evan Rachel Wood's Stephanie is angry but willing to hear him out, because deep down, a part of her wants the daddy she never had, but that stands in conflict with her justified anger at him for never being home. In The Whale, Sadie Sink's Ellie is not only angry, she's vile and spiteful and malicious. She takes pictures of Charlie and posts them to social media with humiliating captions, she tries to ruin a missionary's life for the sole crime of him daring to have faith, and most of all, she only tolerates her dad's attempt at a reconciliation because he'll do her homework and he's going to pay her to boot. Again, one of these characters feels real, and one doesn't quite hit the mark. It keeps going up and down the list. The moment of weakness where all seems lost and the main character makes an indulgent and self-destructive choice, the last stand of defiance, even the final shot, it all feels like an inferior copy of what Aronofsky has done before. I don't know why he felt the need to tell the story again, and to do it with less realistic, less human characters. I would still recommend seeing it, whether you've seen The Wrestler or not. It's still a very well-done movie. But just know that this is the director copying himself, and it's definitely the lesser version.