The Whale (2022)
★★★★★ — The Whale (2022)
Darren Aronofsky adapted this from Samuel D. Hunter's acclaimed 2012 stage play, with Hunter himself writing the screenplay. Aronofsky, working between the relative scale of Black Swan and mother!, kept the production deliberately small, shooting on a tight $3 million budget and confining almost the entire film to a single apartment set, a choice that mirrors the play's theatrical roots. The shoot became notable primarily for Brendan Fraser's return to leading-man territory after a long, well-documented absence from prominent Hollywood work, a comeback that earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor. A24, by 2022 already established as the prestige indie label of the era, co-produced and distributed the film, which went on to gross over $57 million worldwide against that modest budget.
This is not a movie about a fat guy. A movie that elicits this type of reaction cannot be anything but a 5* The fat thing... that's inconsequential. It's not REALLY part of it. This is a story about grief, about loss, about life and about the people involved, and the people left behind. It was beautifully written, beautifully scored but this movie WILL CRUSH YOU. It's so good, but I never want to watch it again.
Rating: ★★★★★ | Year: 2022 | Watched: 2025-05-04
Where to watch (UK)
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Physical: Amazon UK
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Darren Aronofsky: Black Swan (2010) · Requiem for a Dream (2000) · The Wrestler (2008)
More with Brendan Fraser: The Quiet American (2002)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
