“The Whale” (2022)

After watching “The Fabelmans” just a couple of days ago, I was pretty sure not many movies could hit me that hard; well, I was very wrong “The Whale” did.

I went into “The Whale” expecting to watch a fantastic performance by Brendan Fraser and maybe one that could give Austin Butler a run for his money for the oscar; after a few scenes, it was clear that not only he gave him a run he runs laps around him and would even go as far to say it’s not only one the best of 2022 but one in of the best ever.

What I didn’t expect was “The Whale” in itself to be this good, Aronofsky is always a shoot-in-the-dark for me, or I love his movies like “The wrestler” or “Black Swan” or I hate them like “Noah”.

The emotional weight in this movie even surpasses the gigantic weight of our character, mostly because of Fraser performance, but he would not hit the heights he did if not for the supporting characters, especially Sadie Sink that plays his daughter in such a visceral way that you can’t help hating her and then in the last scene of the movie one line is all she needs to make us cry, and let’s not forget Hong Chau that just makes us all think we need a friend like that.

This is a movie that is pretty much in one location, it is almost 2h long, and when it ends, you just can’t believe how invested you got and how emotional it got you; honestly, it’s not hard to make me cry in movies; especially in a father and daughter plot, but can’t remember another film where I cried like this.

It is not an easy movie to watch at points, it will make you sick, and the tension is palpable and enhanced by a haunting score from Rob Simonsen that just makes the most mundane situations feel haunting.

Honestly, I am still shaking and can only say “The whale” is easily one of the best movies I have watched all year.

Have you seen it? What did you think?

What is your favourite performance of the year?