The Whale (2022) on Netflix
Charlie, a reclusive English teacher, teaches online with his webcam off and never leaves his apartment. He offers his estranged daughter Ellie his savings if she will spend time with him.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.6/10310,483 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes64%
Trailer
Plot summary
Charlie lives alone in Moscow, Idaho, and weighs 600 pounds. He runs online English writing classes for college students and keeps his camera switched off because of how he looks. Liz, a nurse, is his only friend; she brings him the unhealthy food he asks for though she wants him treated for his failing heart, which he says he cannot pay for. Nearly every night a delivery driver, Dan, leaves his pizza on the porch and takes the money from the mailbox, so the two never meet. Thomas, a missionary from the New Life Church, lets himself in with a spare key and offers to help. Charlie abandoned his teenage daughter Ellie eight years ago and now offers her his savings if she spends time with him. She agrees, on the condition that he does her homework.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Whale (2022)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Before Brendan Fraser was cast, The Whale was set to star James Corden with Tom Ford directing, until Ford left over creative differences; George Clooney briefly considered directing the film but declined.
- For the role of Charlie, Brendan Fraser spent four hours a day being fitted with prosthetics weighing up to 300 lb, and worked with a dance instructor for months to decide how the character would move.
- Darren Aronofsky spent over a decade trying to adapt Samuel D. Hunter's play but could not find the right actor for Charlie; he settled on Brendan Fraser after seeing him in a trailer for Journey to the End of the Night (2006).
- Liz's race was not specified in the play or screenplay; Hong Chau, who is of Asian heritage, was cast, and the final screenplay made Liz adopted to accommodate her, with Chau's push for an unkempt, tattooed look incorporated.
- The play was set in 2009 but the film was updated to 2016, so the events would fall before a major "seismic change", the COVID-19 pandemic, with the 2016 Republican presidential primaries shown on television.
