Genre: Drama
Premise: When a reclusive 600 pound online English teacher learns he’s going to die soon, he tries to reconnect with his rage-filled teenaged daughter, who hates him for destroying their family.
About: This is the next big Darren Aronofsky project. It will star Brendan Frasier, who you could say we’re going to be seeing a lot more of in more ways than one. Also starring will be Stranger Thing’s Sadie Sink. The script was written by Samuel D. Hunter, who has a thin Hollywood resume (heh heh, how could I resist?). He’s best known for writing 9 episodes of the eclectic FX show, Baskets. That made me think he originally wrote the script for Louie Anderson (who plays the breakout character from that show) before Aronofsky turned it into something bigger, but I guess The Whale is an adaptation of his own play.
Writer: Samuel D. Hunter
Details: 109 pages
You may not think of Aronofsky as a marketable director. You don’t go to the guy to direct your latest blockbuster IP. But I’d argue there’s no director who understands how to make money off dark material better than Aronofsky. Anyone can make half a billion dollars directing a Star Wars movie. But try to make 300 million dollars off a ballet thriller about a woman’s descent into madness.
That’s a special kind of skill, to be able to find dark subject matter that makes money for a studio. And I think Aronofsky has done it again with The Whale. Many people have a morbid obsession with hoarders and people who eat themselves to death, which is why you see entire reality TV shows dedicated to this stuff. Let’s see what Hunter and Aronofsky have come up with in this space and if it’s going to bring Frasier back into prominence.
Charlie is a 40-something 600 pound online English teacher who never leaves his apartment. Actually, the best way to describe Charlie is to show you the writer’s own introduction: “CHARLIE, a man in his 40s weighing around 600 pounds, is on the couch in front of his laptop, masturbating to gay porn.” I’ve never in all the scripts I’ve read read an introduction quite like that one. Bravo, lol.
Oh, but it gets worse. Charlie starts having heart palpitations while he’s watching the porn. When there’s a knock on his door from Thomas, a representative of the New Life Church, Charlie has no choice but to let him in. He shoves an essay about Moby Dick at Thomas and tells him to read it out loud. Confused, Thomas does, and for reasons we’ll find out later, the heart palpitations go away.
Soon after, Charlie’s only friend in the world, Liz, stops by and takes his blood pressure. It’s 238 over 134. Liz begs Charlie to go to the hospital but Charlie won’t. What’s the point? So they can extend his life a few months and charge him 200 grand for it? Liz says if Charlie doesn’t go to the hospital, he’ll be dead by the end of the week. Then I’ll be dead by the end of the week, Charlie says.
Because of that impeding death, Charlie calls his daughter, 17 year old Ellie, who he hasn’t spoken to since she was 4, and asks her to come by. Ellie is a rage-filled mess who hates everyone, especially her father. Through their conversations, we learn that Charlie left his wife and Ellie when she was 4 to be with a man. That man died a decade ago, and Charlie’s been eating ever since.
Since Ellie is flunking out of English, Charlie makes her a deal. He’s got all this money saved up. He’ll leave it all to her if she comes over every day and they work on her writing together. Ellie hates her father so much that she would rather jump in a pizza oven. But because there’s money involved, she begrudgingly agrees. Charlie endures his horribly abusive daughter in the hopes of changing her before he dies. But when his ex-wife learns of their relationship, she charges in in a blaze of glory, determined to shut it down for good.
This is a really sad script.
But it’s also a really good script.
Aronofsky has hit on a certain type of character that does well with audiences. That would be the character who is both sympathetic and broken. I think this is a lesson a lot of drama writers never learn. They get the ‘broken’ part right. But they forget the sympathy.
Let’s go over why both are important.
In The Whale, sympathy is built into the character. There’s no need to write any artificial ‘save the cat’ moments here. We’re going to feel sympathy for someone who is 600 pounds and has zero quality of life. So right off the bat, we’re rooting for this guy.
I think a lot of writers believe that, with drama, you want to be brazen and move away from “root for-a-ble” characters. They want anti-heroes. They want darkness. They want Melvin Udall. But the upside of making your protagonist sympathetic it that we’re more likely to care what happens to them. And that’s important for a drama.
But wait a minute, Carson. The big reason you write a drama instead of all of that soulless Hollywood garbage is so you can go dark with the characters, take chances with them, make them unique.
Where you explore darkness in dramas is in the hero’s brokenness. Dramas are rarely about plot. Instead, what you call “plot” is transferred over to the protagonist’s inner journey. The idea is that they’re broken and we want to see if they can be fixed. That arc of going from broken to fixed becomes the narrative.
Sometimes, they’re able to overcome this brokenness, like Joy Newsome in 2015’s “Room.” But other times, they are not, like Jack Maine in A Star is Born.
Which is an adequate way to describe The Whale. There really isn’t a plot here other than Charlie’s rapidly deteriorating health and this quasi-deal he makes with his daughter. That creates some form to the story. But if I’m being honest, this is the Charlie Show. We’re so fascinated by this guy that we just want to see if he’s going to make it. Or at least change.
Some of the hardest stuff to watch is Charlie eating endless piles of junk food despite the fact that he nearly has a heart attack every hour. One moment has him stumbling to the door to pick up his two large pizzas that have been left outside the doorway. Charlie can’t bend down so he has to use one of those extender-claws to pick the pizzas up. Because he’s so intent on getting those pizzas inside so he can start chowing down, he doesn’t notice that the delivery guy is still off to the side, so horrified by what he’s witnessing he can’t help but take a picture with his phone.
The Whale is the second movie review in a row where a writer has come up with a marketable idea that could be shot in one location cheaply. Yesterday we had Boiling Point. And today we have an even more contained premise. But what I love about The Whale is that the contained premise IS ORGANIC. What I mean by that is, the setup to keep it contained makes sense. A 600 pound man doesn’t leave his apartment. So obviously the movie is going to take place in one location.
Those are golden concepts, when you come up with that stuff. Because most contained concepts are artificially manufactured. Like that one that takes place up on a broken ski lift chair? Or Don’t Breathe? Come on.
There’s no point in holding the Best Actor race in 2022. This movie has already won Brendan Frasier the Oscar. But The Whale is going to be like a lot of Aronofsky’s movies. You’re going to watch it. It’s going to move you. It’s going to stay with you for the rest of your life. But you’re never going to watch it again. It’s too intense. It’s too sad. But, wow, it’s one hell of a character study.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[x] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: To find a character, zoom in on a primary personality trait and then keep hitting that trait over and over again. Ellie’s primary personality trait is that she likes to make people uncomfortable. Almost all of her dialogue pushes people, challenges people, agitates people. It leads to both an interesting and consistent character. Here’s a conversation she has in the middle of the movie with Thomas, the religious solicitor, after she’s taken a picture of him.
THOMAS: I really wish you wouldn’t do that.
ELLIE: Do you find me attractive?
THOMAS: (looks at her, caught off-guard) I–
ELLIE: Because I’m not attracted to you at all, just to let you know.
Pause. ELLIE looks at THOMAS, who is a little hurt. She rolls her eyes, gets up, goes into the kitchen, looking for food.
ELLIE: Oh my God grow up, maybe someone else finds you attractive, just not me. Maybe my dad finds you attractive.
A lot of writers write confusing or contradictory characters that the reader can never quite figure out. By zooming in on a single dominant personality trait and going back to that trait over and over again, you’re going to write a consistent memorable character.
