A review of the movie “Whale” directed by Darren Aronofsky; The glory of acting

Charso Press: “The Whale” is Darren Aronofsky’s latest work, a psychological drama and different from his other works such as “Black Swan 2010” and “The Wrestler 2008”, in which he only directed the film. The screenplay was written by Samuel D. Hunter based on his play. The theatrical atmosphere that dominates the scenes, which is focused on the interior of the apartment of the main character of the drama, “Charlie”, directs the audience’s focus to his acting and the layers of his personality.
A fat and reclusive professor of literature who has sunk into absolute isolation and is devoted to editing the texts and articles of his students.

In the field of genre literature, the apparent conflict of “Charlie” from the category of sub-contrasts of drama elements tries to portray his personality layers in the branches of physiology, social and of course psychological for his audience. The story proceeds in detail regarding Charlie’s character from a physical and social point of view, and in the first act of the film, he reveals all the ammunition of his personal life to the audience, but on the psychological level, the character is confused due to a narrative flaw.
The storyteller has tried to depict his relationship with his daughter Ellie and bring it to a favorable reconstruction. “Anger” is a characteristic that the writer and filmmaker try to institutionalize in “Eli”. A girl who has returned to her father after eight years of separation to get close to him with financial intentions. Both have lost their common life and father-daughter relationship. A broken family. Charlie’s “act” of choosing and living together with the same sex has brought him to the precipice of falling, and the death of his same-sex partner has led him to pure isolation. The film uses the inner story of forbidden love, which is the cause of Charlie’s moral downfall. The power of the mentioned “verb” is so much that it overshadows the life together with his ex-wife “Marie” and their only eight-year-old daughter. Based on his free choice, Charlie becomes an outcast and incurs chronic karma. He lacks health insurance and refuses to go to the hospital, and the self-belief of “dying” has taken root in him as an important disorder. Charlie considers himself a “loser”, of course, until the end of the film, he does not consider choosing a same-sex partner as a wrong choice, and the memory of “Ellen” is always accompanied by a pure sense of love and respect for him, to the point that his ex-wife “Marie” In a dialogue in the middle of the film, he recounts Charlie’s wrong choice as the cause of their daughter Ellie’s chaotic behavior in the present and blames the collapse of their life on Charlie. Charlie is surrounded by the punishment of his arbitrary and free-spirited action, and because of his two-sided behavior, on the one hand, his love for “Ellen” and on the other hand, the harsh behavior of “Ellie” has kept him on the verge of life and death. By giving all of his possessions to his daughter, he tries to bring her to a restored psychological state, until with the essay “Moby-Dick” he finds himself at the center of the character of the whale that Melville, the author, seeks through the character of “Ehab”. To kill him, we gradually realize Charlie’s desire for self-inflicted death by overeating.
The unexpected entry of young “Thomas” into Charlie’s life in the role of a religious preacher does not go anywhere. Although “Hunter” as an author tried to add meaningful layers to the film by telling the parallel story of “Moby Dick” from the famous novel “Herman Melville”, but a good adaptation connection between the film and the novel is not established. With a symbolic contract with his audience, he considers “Thomas” as “Ishmael” the narrator and sailor of the novel “Moby-Dick”, according to the weight of the adaptation, he considers the character of “Ellie” in the position of “Ehab” the captain of the Pequod ship and the killer of the amber whale. will be In a surprise, “Thomas” finds his way to the hidden house and the room where he is locked from the beginning, and by turning his attention to the Holy Bible, he realizes that the Bible was a gift from Ellen to Charlie, and we realize his religious personality. The filmmaker has tried not to touch the flashback based on the life of the two based on the theatricality of the script, so the audience’s knowledge of “Ellen” remains at the same level. An incomplete event that “Aronofsky” could make into an understandable and deep challenge for his audience by using narrative elements. The story of “Whale” remains on the surface and a good connection is not established between the minimal characters of “Hunter” story and the essay adapted from “Moby Dick” novel.
“Whale”, like “Moby-Dick” by Herman Melville, is the story of an anti-hero who has been rendered inactive by a new adaptation. Moby-Dick is the agile and wild white whale of Melville’s novel, unattainable and warrior, and not afraid to kill. He is a real killer, but Aronofsky’s whale is the story of a lonely and isolated whale who surrenders to his own death. The basis of the symbolic parallels between “The Whale” and “Moby-Dick” is flawed and hurts the body of the film. Perhaps, if Aronofsky and Hunter jointly dealt with the story of “52 Hz Whale” in a smart choice, they could have improved some conceptual issues between the two parallel narratives. A whale with a high wavelength in producing sounds and his voice being unintelligible to his fellow species has turned him into a lonely whale in the waters of the open oceans. The sadness and loneliness of the 52 Hz whale is well-known among the world’s scientists, and the author could use it in his story and find a suitable equivalent for Charlie’s behavioral conflicts in the movie.
Somewhere in the narrative, it is stated in a closed and limited way that Charlie killed Ellen, but the filmmaker does not enter into the story of the two; The important and golden reason that remains hidden from the audience. It seems that Aronofsky has reached self-sufficiency and a satisfying belief in praising Brendan Fraser’s performance.

“The Whale” acts in a hurried narrative and places itself in a blind adherence to the original play and does not allow the entry of narrative elements such as pre-story and drama effects such as suspense, surprise and mystery, and the story suffers from a dramatic flaw in the narrative. Aronofsky, who before him directed “Black Swan” or we can see the dynamic version of “The Wrestler” in his works, was able to consider the best use and efficiency of cinematic narrative elements to make his story transparent. Now, with a mountain of maturity in filmmaking, he has taken a big risk, a risk that has not paid off and has kept his narration of “Whale” on the level and has focused his audience’s attention only on the performance of the American-Canadian actor Brandon Fraser. Although the filmmaker’s camera comes out of Charlie’s apartment in two places, the cautious side of the filmmaker keeps it hidden in the terrace location and drawing the past and external world of the anti-hero of the narrative, and settles for a medium view of Charlie’s youth by the sea. which practically does not create the necessary efficiency for the questioning mentality of the audience of the film. Many questions remain unanswered in the audience’s mind. The absent character of “Ellen” does not lead to a suitable payment in the direction of reflecting the narrative, as the power of her absence does not indicate her non-existence and driving force in the story, and she becomes a procrastinating and ineffective character in the story of the whale. The nature of Charlie’s free choice is not clarified, and the bold secret of this immoral choice does not reveal the forbidden plot of “Whale”. The ending of the film seems careless and hasty, and sticking the climax of the film to the conclusion and the end of the film does not bring the performance of the supporting characters “Thomas” and “Liz” to the desired effect, and only portrays the magnificence of “Fraser’s” acting and the unfinished relationship between Charlie and Eli will be based on an unstructured tragedy. Aronofsky’s emphasis on the linear and theatrical structure of his narrative has distanced him from the cinematic weight density that we know from him. The inner plot of sin is a heavy shadow on the main and external plot, which is the reconstruction of Charlie’s family relationships, especially his emotional and moral relationship with his child.
A narrow border between free and unconditional behavior on the one hand and the consequences of unconventional and unethical behavior on the other hand, Charlie’s decision to leave his wife and child has led him to a serious risk, he remains unclear and unknown after the murder of Ellen. He becomes isolated and turns to the sin of overeating, one of the major sins according to the Christian religion. He gradually commits suicide and prepares a self-imposed punishment for himself. In the meantime, he still does not retreat from his position based on his love for Ellen Pa, but in that biological crypt, he tries to encourage his daughter towards an independent path. Fimabin’s emotional relationship that never gets a chance to be fixed, because Charlie’s intellectual and inner core – as big as his body – is small and hard and impenetrable. He is on the borderline of accepting conventional morals and facing opposition to it. Charlie does not have a proper understanding of a cohesive family, the elements of the pre-story do not reveal to the audience a reflection of his past and his childhood, and everything is dark and inaccessible like Charlie’s blackened interior in the movie Whale. He doesn’t even come close to the concept of being the killer of the white amber whale in Herman Melville’s story, his callousness to leave his family is not understood and everything remains confused in the hasty ending. The realistic efforts of Brandon Fraser, the actor of “Charlie” in the brilliance of his role, remain only at the level of a twinkling star in Aronofsky’s film and does not push the audience to deep points of social and psychological layers except to make them emotional. In the most optimistic way, the film can bring awards to Fraser in the main role, although the good performance of “Hung Chow” in the role of “Liz” as a supporting role and protagonist of Hunter and Aronofsky’s narrative cannot be overlooked.

///.