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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Thomas mentions in the first scene that he doesn't have a phone. Later in the movie, he admits [[spoiler:he threw it away out of shame and fear after he stole from his church and ran away from home]].
to:
* {{Foreshadowing}}: {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Thomas mentions in the first scene that he doesn't have a phone. Later in the movie, he admits [[spoiler:he threw it away out of shame and fear after he stole from his church and ran away fromhome]].home]].
** The essay Charlie insists is amazing and has read enough times to recite verbatim is notably a very amateurish essay, hinting that it's the ''author'' not the content that he cares about. Sure enough, the essay was written by his daughter in middle school.
** Thomas mentions in the first scene that he doesn't have a phone. Later in the movie, he admits [[spoiler:he threw it away out of shame and fear after he stole from his church and ran away from
** The essay Charlie insists is amazing and has read enough times to recite verbatim is notably a very amateurish essay, hinting that it's the ''author'' not the content that he cares about. Sure enough, the essay was written by his daughter in middle school.
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The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a reclusive writing teacher attempting to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
to:
The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a reclusive writing teacher attempting to reconnect with who, mourning the death of his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies partner, is intent on dying of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
(Creator/HongChau). However, he wishes to reconnect with his daughter, Ellie (Creator/SadieSink), before he passes and attempts to reforge a relationship broken by betrayal and estrangement.
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''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter (based on his play of the same title) and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a reclusive writing teacher attempting to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
to:
''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter (based on his play of the same title) and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky.
The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a reclusive writing teacher attempting to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a reclusive writing teacher attempting to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
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*
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* HeroicBSOD: After being seen by the pizza delivery guy, Charlie goes onto a massive eating binge and sends a curse laden email to all his students.
-->'''Charlie:''' Fuck all these readings. Fuck all the essays. JUST WRITE ME SOMETHING HONEST!
-->'''Charlie:''' Fuck all these readings. Fuck all the essays. JUST WRITE ME SOMETHING HONEST!
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* AmbiguousSituation: Ellie's revealing [[spoiler:Thomas's]] crimes to their family. On the one hand, they were forgiven and decided to return home, causing Charlie to decide Ellie was simply helping [[spoiler:Thomas]]. On the other hand, Ellie has been shown to bully pretty much everyone she meets, including drugging her father for her own amusement, suggesting that her most recent attempt at ruining someone's life simply backfired.
* ApologisesAlot: Charlie tends to frequently apologize for every little thing, to the extent that Liz threatens to stab him if he says it one more time.
* ApologisesAlot: Charlie tends to frequently apologize for every little thing, to the extent that Liz threatens to stab him if he says it one more time.
* CondescendingCompassion: Thomas claims he wants to save Charlie, but he's very much against pretty much the entirety of Charlie's lifestyle and at one point tries to insist that God will accept Charlie again if he forsakes his love for his dead boyfriend. This results in Charlie getting angry for the only time in the movie and giving a blistering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to him.
* EasilyForgiven:
** Charlie not only forgives Ellie for how she mistreats him, he doesn't even seem to care about any of it, including that she drugged him.
** [[spoiler:Thomas's]] parents forgive them for [[spoiler:stealing from the church]] the moment they can get into contact with their child.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The film starts on a Monday afternoon and ends on Friday of the same week.
** Charlie not only forgives Ellie for how she mistreats him, he doesn't even seem to care about any of it, including that she drugged him.
** [[spoiler:Thomas's]] parents forgive them for [[spoiler:stealing from the church]] the moment they can get into contact with their child.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The film starts on a Monday afternoon and ends on Friday of the same week.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Thomas mentions in the first scene that he doesn't have a phone. Later in the movie, he admits [[spoiler:he threw it away out of shame and fear after he stole from his church and ran away from home]].
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* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.
to:
*
*JerkWithAHeartOfGold: JerkWithAHeartOfGold:
** What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a badmother.mother.
** Liz tends to behave like a BattleAxeNurse and frequently yells and curses at Charlie, but it's made very clear that they're best friends and she desperately wants to keep Charlie alive.
*
** What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad
** Liz tends to behave like a BattleAxeNurse and frequently yells and curses at Charlie, but it's made very clear that they're best friends and she desperately wants to keep Charlie alive.
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* YourDaysAreNumbered: At the start of the movie, Charlie is outright told he'll be dead by the weekend if he doesn't go to the hospital.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_whale.png]]
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[[spoiler:--> '''Charlie:''' I need to know that I've done ''one'' thing right with my life!]]
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* WhamLine: Happens exactly halfway through, [[spoiler:when things come to a head with Charlie, his ex-wife, and Ellie.]]
[[spoiler:--> '''Charlie:''' I need to know that I've done ''one'' thing right with my life!]]
[[spoiler:--> '''Charlie:''' I need to know that I've done ''one'' thing right with my life!]]
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20 Minutes Into The Past
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* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Since news coverage of the 2016 Idaho Republican presidential primary is seen on television several times, it can be extrapolated that the film occurs in early March 2016. As a result of this, Charlie's video conferencing software and cell phone are seen to be slightly more primitive than they likely would have looked in 2022. What Aronofsky intended by setting the film during this controversial period of American politics is open to interpretation.
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* GentleGiant: Charlie is both very tall and very fat, but he's relentlessly kind toward everyone but himself, even when others aren't kind to him.
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* GentleGiant: Charlie is both very tall and very fat, but and he's relentlessly kind toward everyone but himself, even when others aren't kind to him.
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''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter (based on his play of the same title) and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
to:
''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter (based on his play of the same title) and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese reclusive writing teacher as he attempts attempting to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
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* BingeMontage: The shame of being spotted by the pizza delivery guy leads to Charlie going on a massive eating binge of pizza, candy, Doritos, sandwich meats and other foods. To top it all off, the montage ends with a VomitIndiscretionShot.
to:
* BingeMontage: The shame of being spotted seen by the pizza delivery guy leads to Charlie going on a massive eating binge of pizza, candy, Doritos, sandwich meats and other foods. To top it all off, the montage ends with a VomitIndiscretionShot.
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* GentleGiant: Charlie is both very tall and enormously overweight, but he's relentlessly kind toward everyone but himself, even when others aren't to him.
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* GentleGiant: Charlie is both very tall and enormously overweight, very fat, but he's relentlessly kind toward everyone but himself, even when others aren't kind to him.
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* NurseWithGoodIntentions: Subverted. Liz is trying to keep Charlie alive. She has an emotional stake in it as her brother committed suicide after being outcasted for being in a homosexual relationship with Charlie, and Charlie appears determined to follow him in death by intentionally overeating. The trope is subverted in that she actually is a competent nurse, but Charlie has resigned himself to dying and ignores all of her correct advice in the process. Her determination to help Charlie often has her behaving like a BattleAxeNurse. But that trope is subverted as well in that she cares about Charlie and is trying to save him, even if her behavior makes her a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* TheVoice: Charlie lectures via Zoom but keeps his camera off to conceal his appearance from his students.
* TheVoice: Charlie lectures via Zoom but keeps his camera off to conceal his appearance from his students.
to:
* NurseWithGoodIntentions: Subverted. Liz is trying to keep Charlie alive. She has an emotional stake in it as her brother committed suicide after being outcasted for being in a homosexual relationship romantic relationship with Charlie, and Charlie appears determined to follow him in death by intentionally overeating. The trope is subverted in that she actually is a competent nurse, but Charlie has resigned himself to dying and ignores all of her correct advice in the process. Her determination to help Charlie often has her behaving like a BattleAxeNurse. But that trope is subverted as well in that she cares about Charlie and is trying to save him, even if her behavior makes her a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
* TheVoice: Charlie lectures via Zoom but keeps his camera offto conceal because he is ashamed of his appearance from his students.physical appearance.
* TheVoice: Charlie lectures via Zoom but keeps his camera off
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!! This film includes examples of:
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* BittersweetEnding: Charlie may be able to demonstrate to his daughter that he truly loves & cares about her despite leaving her years ago, but his health only gets worse over the course of the film, and he's stated to have roughly a week to live at the beginning. [[spoiler: The final scene of the film heavily implies that, while Charlie is on the very precipice of death, he has finally managed to reach his daughter emotionally and convince her of her worth, thus attaining a sort of salvation]].
to:
* BittersweetEnding: Charlie may be able to demonstrate to his daughter that he truly loves & cares about her despite leaving her years ago, but his health only gets worse over the course of the film, and he's stated to have roughly a week to live at the beginning. [[spoiler: The [[spoiler:The final scene of the film heavily implies that, while Charlie is on the very precipice of death, he has finally managed to reach his daughter emotionally and convince her of her worth, thus attaining a sort of salvation]].
* TheFaceless: Dan, the pizza delivery man who brings pizzas to Charlie's apartment several times throughout the movie is only seen as a silhouette through his window. [[spoiler:Subverted towards the end of the film, as he waits outside the apartment when Charlie opens the door to get his pizza, causing him to gasp and run away]].
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** [[spoiler: Thomas gradually explains that [[WellDoneSonGuy never feeling good enough for his father]], and his own church [[{{Hypocrite}} being more about the appearance of doing good than actually doing good]], brought about a crisis in faith and identity. He responded by stealing from the church and running away from home]].
to:
** [[spoiler: Thomas [[spoiler:Thomas gradually explains that [[WellDoneSonGuy never feeling good enough for his father]], and his own church [[{{Hypocrite}} being more about the appearance of doing good than actually doing good]], brought about a crisis in faith and identity. He responded by stealing from the church and running away from home]].
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* NurseWithGoodIntentions: Subverted. Liz is trying to keep Charlie alive. She has an emotional stake in it as her brother committed suicide after being outcasted for being in a homosexual relationship with Charlie, and Charlie appears determined to follow him in death by intentionally overeating. The trope is subverted in that she actually is a competent nurse, but Charlie has resigned himself to dying and ignores all of her advice in the process. Her determination to help Charlie often has her behaving like a BattleAxeNurse. But that trope is subverted as well in that she cares about Charlie and is trying to save him, even if her behavior makes her a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
to:
* NurseWithGoodIntentions: Subverted. Liz is trying to keep Charlie alive. She has an emotional stake in it as her brother committed suicide after being outcasted for being in a homosexual relationship with Charlie, and Charlie appears determined to follow him in death by intentionally overeating. The trope is subverted in that she actually is a competent nurse, but Charlie has resigned himself to dying and ignores all of her correct advice in the process. Her determination to help Charlie often has her behaving like a BattleAxeNurse. But that trope is subverted as well in that she cares about Charlie and is trying to save him, even if her behavior makes her a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
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* NurseWithGoodIntentions: Subverted. Liz is trying to keep Charlie alive. She has an emotional stake in it as her brother committed suicide after being outcasted for being in a homosexual relationship with Charlie, and Charlie appears determined to follow him in death by intentionally overeating. The trope is subverted in that she actually is a competent nurse, but Charlie has resigned himself to dying and ignores all of her advice in the process. Her determination to help Charlie often has her behaving like a BattleAxeNurse. But that trope is subverted as well in that she cares about Charlie and is trying to save him, even if her behavior makes her a JerkWithAHeartOfGold.
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* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.
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* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: JerkWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.
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** Ellie is shown to be TheBully and a BrattyTeenageDaughter who often does things that are quite cruel, such as fat shaming her own father on the internet. But a lot of issues stem from [[DisappearedDad Charlie]] leaving her behind when she was 8 years old, and feeling unloved by anyone in or out of her family.
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** Ellie is shown to be TheBully and a BrattyTeenageDaughter who often does things that are quite cruel, such as fat shaming her own father on the internet. But a lot of her issues stem from [[DisappearedDad Charlie]] leaving her behind when she was 8 years old, and feeling unloved by anyone in or out of her family.family.
** [[spoiler: Thomas gradually explains that [[WellDoneSonGuy never feeling good enough for his father]], and his own church [[{{Hypocrite}} being more about the appearance of doing good than actually doing good]], brought about a crisis in faith and identity. He responded by stealing from the church and running away from home]].
** [[spoiler: Thomas gradually explains that [[WellDoneSonGuy never feeling good enough for his father]], and his own church [[{{Hypocrite}} being more about the appearance of doing good than actually doing good]], brought about a crisis in faith and identity. He responded by stealing from the church and running away from home]].
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*BrattyTeenageDaughter: Ellie. She's rude, standoffish and confrontational until the last moments of the movie, when Charlie finally breaks down her defenses. [[TheBully Cyberbullying]] is also a thing with her, as shown when she fat shames her own father on the internet. Her mother says she's done that to several people several times over.
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* FreudianExcuse:
** Ellie is shown to be TheBully and a BrattyTeenageDaughter who often does things that are quite cruel, such as fat shaming her own father on the internet. But a lot of issues stem from [[DisappearedDad Charlie]] leaving her behind when she was 8 years old, and feeling unloved by anyone in or out of her family.
** Ellie is shown to be TheBully and a BrattyTeenageDaughter who often does things that are quite cruel, such as fat shaming her own father on the internet. But a lot of issues stem from [[DisappearedDad Charlie]] leaving her behind when she was 8 years old, and feeling unloved by anyone in or out of her family.
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* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.
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* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.mother.
* TheVoice: Charlie lectures via Zoom but keeps his camera off to conceal his appearance from his students.
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* TheVoice: Charlie lectures via Zoom but keeps his camera off to conceal his appearance from his students.
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* ADateWithRosiePalms: The plot is kickstarted by Charlie masturbating to gay porn, an act that almost kills him when his heart nearly gives out.
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''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
to:
''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter (based on his play of the same title) and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
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* BingeMontage: The shame of being spotted by the pizza delivery guy leads to Charlie going on a massive eating binge of pizza, candy, Doritos, sandwich meats and other foods. To top it all off, the montage ends with a VomitIndiscretionShot.
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* BittersweetEnding: Charlie may be able to demonstrate to his daughter that he truly loves & cares about her despite leaving her years ago, but his health only gets worse over the course of the film, and he's stated to have roughly a week to live at the beginning.
to:
* BittersweetEnding: Charlie may be able to demonstrate to his daughter that he truly loves & cares about her despite leaving her years ago, but his health only gets worse over the course of the film, and he's stated to have roughly a week to live at the beginning. [[spoiler: The final scene of the film heavily implies that, while Charlie is on the very precipice of death, he has finally managed to reach his daughter emotionally and convince her of her worth, thus attaining a sort of salvation]].
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* DoubleMeaningTitle: The film begins and ends with the reading of an essay about Literature/MobyDick but Charlie himself is large enough to be labelled a "whale".
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* DoubleMeaningTitle: The film begins and ends with the reading of an essay about Literature/MobyDick but Charlie himself Literature/MobyDick, and "whale" is large enough to be labelled a "whale".common slur used against fat people like Charlie.
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* FadeToWhite: Just as Aronofsky has ended multiple films earlier.
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* FatSuit: Lots of makeup & prosthetics were used to transform Brendan into Charlie.
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Added note about Hong Chau's character
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''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure.
to:
''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure.
failure despite the best efforts of his friend/nurse Liz (Creator/HongChau).
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Link Sadie Sink's name to her page
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''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) before he dies of congestive heart failure.
to:
''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) (Creator/SadieSink) before he dies of congestive heart failure.
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Fixed link for Moby Dick
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* DoubleMeaningTitle: The film begins and ends with the reading of an essay about Literature\MobyDick but Charlie himself is large enough to be labelled a "whale".
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* DoubleMeaningTitle: The film begins and ends with the reading of an essay about Literature\MobyDick Literature/MobyDick but Charlie himself is large enough to be labelled a "whale".
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''The Whale'' is a 2022 drama film written by Samuel D. Hunter and directed by Creator/DarrenAronofsky. The story follows Charlie (Creator/BrendanFraser), a morbidly obese writing teacher as he attempts to reconnect with his daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink) before he dies of congestive heart failure.
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!! This film includes examples of:
* BittersweetEnding: Charlie may be able to demonstrate to his daughter that he truly loves & cares about her despite leaving her years ago, but his health only gets worse over the course of the film, and he's stated to have roughly a week to live at the beginning.
* BuryYourGays: Charlie's ex-boyfriend is said to have killed himself over religious guilt after being expelled from his family/church for his relationship with Charlie, and Charlie himself is very slowly committing suicide via over-eating.
* DeathSeeker: Charlie is making no effort to keep himself alive, and refuses to go to the hospital, planning instead to save all his money so it can go to Ellie once he dies.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: The film begins and ends with the reading of an essay about Literature\MobyDick but Charlie himself is large enough to be labelled a "whale".
* TheFilmOfThePlay: Adapted from Hunter's own play of the same name.
* GentleGiant: Charlie is both very tall and enormously overweight, but he's relentlessly kind toward everyone but himself, even when others aren't to him.
* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.
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!! This film includes examples of:
* BittersweetEnding: Charlie may be able to demonstrate to his daughter that he truly loves & cares about her despite leaving her years ago, but his health only gets worse over the course of the film, and he's stated to have roughly a week to live at the beginning.
* BuryYourGays: Charlie's ex-boyfriend is said to have killed himself over religious guilt after being expelled from his family/church for his relationship with Charlie, and Charlie himself is very slowly committing suicide via over-eating.
* DeathSeeker: Charlie is making no effort to keep himself alive, and refuses to go to the hospital, planning instead to save all his money so it can go to Ellie once he dies.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: The film begins and ends with the reading of an essay about Literature\MobyDick but Charlie himself is large enough to be labelled a "whale".
* TheFilmOfThePlay: Adapted from Hunter's own play of the same name.
* GentleGiant: Charlie is both very tall and enormously overweight, but he's relentlessly kind toward everyone but himself, even when others aren't to him.
* JerkassWithAHeartOfGold: What Charlie believes Ellie to be, even while her own mother thinks the worst of her and didn't want her ex-husband to know how bad things were to avoid being judged as a bad mother.
