Adapting a stage play to the movie screen is a challenge for any director or scriptwriter. Either one is tempted to “open up” the setting to provide more visual variety – as for example Mike Nichols did in his otherwise leaner (and dramatically improved) version of his masterly presentation of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or one reimagines the entire vehicle, as was the case with the two musicals Cabaret and Chicago – in both cases resulting in an improvement on the original stage shows.
In other cases, such as A Few Good Men, the film was not able to capture the dramatic immediacy of the theatre, despite being able to shift scene more easily.
Faced with the challenge of adapting his own play The Whale to the screen, Samuel D. Hunter has been unable to escape the staginess of the original, causing one to be aware of the fact that one is watching a film version of a stage play. While then the film The Whale does have considerable merit, it is rather less satisfactory on screen than its Oscar recognition might indicate. (The film won Brendan Fraser the best actor award and Montreal makeup artist Adrien Morot the award for best makeup and hairstyling.)
Telling the story of a morbidly obese man, Charlie, The Whale is largely concerned with his efforts to atone for the mistakes of his life in the short time he has remaining. Having left his wife and daughter some years previously when he entered into a relationship with a male student, he wishes above all to make sure that his daughter, whom he has barely seen since the marriage breakup, fulfills what he sees as her great potential.
He engages with various people as the film unfolds. As each takes turns to come to visit him, one learns more and more about his life: his career as a college English teacher, the friendly relationships he develops with his caregiver and his bitter estranged wife, and, above all, his tenuous connection with his daughter.
These encounters are often interesting, especially as at the centre of it all the viewer discovers Charlie – a man of self-doubt, bitter disappointment at his own failure, and an ability to laugh at himself as he makes last desperate efforts to give his life some significance.
Perhaps because of the theatrical arrangement of interviews, which is what essentially makes up the storyline, the film somehow lacks conviction. This is especially so as the characters reveal an unlikely overly coincidental involvement in Charlie’s earlier life.
This lack of conviction is further heightened because Charlie constantly describes his daughter as “amazing.” How he would know this when he has barely been a factor in her life for years is a mystery. It also lacks likelihood as she is clearly a self-centred brat – which is presumably supposed to add poignancy to Charlie’s position.
That the film works at all is largely due to Brendan Fraser’s acting in the lead role, for which he deserves his Oscar (even though I would have chosen Colin Farrell for The Banshees of Inisherin)
Aided by superb makeup (again deservedly recognized with an Oscar) , Fraser convincingly portrays the tragic plight of a man who, despite his obesity, is unable to control his eating, who is trapped in the frustrations of his condition, and whose most repeated line, is, “I’m sorry” as he seeks some redemption.
Fraser’s portrayal is so convincing that it frequently makes The Whale hard to watch. The film should certainly help people view more sympathetically those who share Charlie’s physical condition.
Charlie is a memorable and tragic person, and although the story that surrounds his last days tends to be melodramatic rather than tragic, it is certainly well worth a viewing.
