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Mental health is a frequent and relevant topic in the modern day. With the increased support of mental illness and mental health services, there is more awareness of its impact on others’ lives. While mental illness has generally become less stigmatized, especially with the decline in inaccurate displays of these topics in media, there is still much to be done in raising awareness of the more uncomfortable topics of mental illness.
A24’s The Whale (2022; Darren Aronofsky)1 challenges these hidden taboos, sparking controversy and raising awareness of mental illness by confronting the realities of depression and self-destruction.
The Whale depicts the story of a middle-aged and reclusive English teacher named Charlie, played by Brendan Fraser, navigating his final days in life, resulting from his extreme obesity. As his end draws near, he is reintroduced to his teenage daughter, whom he abandoned in favor of his lover years before, while he attempts to mend their broken relationship.
Throughout the movie, the intricacies of Charlie’s self-destructive mindset are revealed, highlighting the inevitability of his end.
A24 & Writers Breaking New Ground
As a studio, A24 is known for its independent films with unique and diverse storytelling2. Famous for movies such as Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022; Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Lady Bird (2017; Greta Gerwig), and Midsommar (2019; Ari Aster), A24’s hits are on the rise.
A24 brings independent writers to their studio, providing opportunities for new writers to pitch fresh and unconventional ideas. One such writer is Samuel D. Hunter. Originally a playwright for theatre, Hunter scripted The Whale to be performed on stage in 2012; however, the script was picked up by American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, then produced into the movie.3
Hunter’s experience in playwriting is what made The Whale‘s setting so unique to audiences. The entire film is performed in one house, with one notable exception for a flashback, and this limited environment mirrors theatre performances where actors enter and exit from the audience’s view, rather than in media where the audiences move with the actors. Theatrical plays can last from a few minutes to three hours,4 and this length is reflected in The Whale‘s nearly two-hour watch time, breaking the conventional movie standards.
The Whale‘s diversity of themes was inspired from Hunter’s own personal experiences, providing insight to the unique character traits displayed in the film. Hunter was teaching expository writing during his time developing The Whale‘s script, and he gave that role to Charlie’s character with their joint desire to see honest writing from students. Hunter also added his experiences with homosexuality and religion into the film, not only building complexity to the topic of mental health, but also adding a personal connection to the story.
A24 isn’t afraid of taking risks. With The Whale, mental illness is confronted through Charlie’s internal struggle with himself and his obesity, dutifully depicted in his interactions with others.
Mental Illness In The Whale — Comfort In The Physical
The Whale brings attention to some of the overlooked particulars of mental illness. Typically defined by a depressed mood and loss of pleasure in doing things for an extended period of time,5 Charlie exhibits many overlooked symptoms of depression, such as his obesity and self-destructive habits. These complex emotions are represented in the world around him, like how his house is dimly lit and colored with shades of blue and gray for darker internal thought.
With an inability to cope with stressful emotions, Charlie’s escape is found through food. Binge-eating, frequently eating large amounts of food in short periods of time, has strong correlations to depression, and the act provides a temporary sense of relief that fuels both issues rather than solves them.6 Charlie’s binge-eating is depictedin numerous intense moments in The Whale, and his reliance on it has led him to his crippling obesity.
Charlie’s extreme obesity is the root of many issues in the movie. His appearance both encourages him to isolate from the people around him and weakens his already low self-esteem. He is unable to move around his house without a walker, which has encouraged his isolation and made him over reliant on the aid.
To maintain the perceived norm, Charlie teaches English virtually and hides his face from students, creating more shame against reaching out to people other than Liz, Alan’s sister, who is stationary in Charlie’s destructive habits. With his disconnection from the outside world, Charlie limits his opportunities for resolving his depression,7 lowering the chance of mental improvement.
Because of an amalgamation of all these issues, Charlie is resolved in his path of self-destruction. At the beginning of the movie, Liz informs him that his obesity is killing him and causing heart failure, yet he continues to rely on his destructive habits.
He actively refuses the hospital and never accepts help, even lying to Liz about financial troubles to avoid going to the hospital. This problem not only shows the extent of his depression, but also exhibits Charlie’s meager motivation in living, all stemming from the loss of Alan.
Most of Charlie’s problems result from the grief of his dead partner. While grief healthy and important to accepting death, it can be detrimental based on the extent of the attachment to one’s partner. In a study on mourning a loved one, performed by renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud, there is a clear difference between mourning, a temporary mental state, and melancholia, a period of depression.8
In mourning, grieving a loved one darkens the person’s perception of the world around them. In melancholia, a person’s ego, or self, is completely attached to the lost loved one. This causes the self to feel absent without the beloved and exhibit symptoms of depression that mourners don’t.
Charlie experiences this melancholia in The Whale. He abandoned his wife and child to be with Alan, believing he was the only person Alan needed when Alan was battling depression. This inadvertently creating a codependency that isolated both and led to Charlie’s depression and loss of self after Alan died.
Charlie is aware of how Alan’s death shaped him, with the man explaining to Ellie, the daughter to whom he’s reconnecting, that “[Alan’s death] had an effect on me.” This passive language reveals Charlie’s own perceived lack of control with his weight and the responsibility he must take up in order to save his life. However, he needs a resurgence in motivation to do it.
Complexity In The Whale Spurs Controversy
With The Whale‘s success comes controversy in its production. Many people had issues with Brendan Fraser playing Charlie rather than a truly gay and obese actor, claiming the role should have been filled by someone with more representation.
Since skinny actors are traditionally shown more on screen, representation for fat actors helps break the general stigma against them. Jackie Schwartz, an American filmmaker with the goal of raising attention to marginalized communities, states that a lot of her self-worth came from what she saw on television,9 so the portrayal of overweight individuals is extremely important to depict accurately.
Other arguments arose with the production’s use of prosthetics for building a realistic fat suit, with fat suits being used to make jokes out of obesity in the past. However, Darren Aronofsky believed production made Charlie look human rather than a spectacle.10
Because Charlie was afflicted with intense depression throughout the film, many believed The Whale‘s depiction of obesity was blatant fatphobia that actively degraded the lives of overweight individuals.11 Since the creators themselves are not fat, accusations have risen that The Whale only confirms society’s general biases against fat people, and it is not a true representation of the overweight population.12
Fraser, however, claimed in an interview that The Whale only represents one individual’s story with obesity:
“‘The Whale’ is one specific story about one specific person because not all people who struggle with obesity are going to struggle with it in the same way.”
In addition, Fraser and The Whale‘s production team worked carefully with the Obesity Action Coalition in order to approach obesity in a respectful way. This led to Fraser attempting to give Charlie’s character dignity in the role, adding complexity that gives The Whale its striking presentation.
The Whale’s Necessity In The Uncomfortable
Despite The Whale‘s controversies, there is some necessity in its execution. Throughout the movie, there are numerous scenes that invoke disgust for audiences, revealing how mental illnesses shouldn’t be glamorized or dulled down on screens.
After Charlie experiences an argument with his family, he binges copious amounts of food in an attempt to eliminate the overwhelming emotions the argument created. This moment has him raiding his fridge and eating everything in his home, revealing the disgust Charlie feels for himself and the realities of how inability to cope with emotions leads to his self-destructive actions.
Because of this disgust, Charlie isolates himself to prevent others from seeing him. This shame can’t be disproven because of society’s universal stigma against obesity, with obesity being associated with bad character.13
Liz marks the importance of enabling that contribute to Charlie’s destructive lifestyle. As Liz is the sister of Alan and a lifelong friend of Charlie, she often struggles with maintaining boundaries. Despite using her occupation as a nurse to track Charlie’s health, she never refuses Charlie’s protests against going to the hospital. Instead, she supplies Charlie with his choice of food, partially because her brother refused to eat when he was afflicted with depression.
Her role is further emphasized when Charlie chokes on his food, and Liz painstakingly performs the Heimlich maneuver after several tries, highlighting the fear and discomfort both are experiencing from Charlie’s actions. Despite Charlie’s impending death in their minds, Liz hands the food back to him and returns to their strained normalcy.
Audiences see every painful part of Charlie’s life. Each moment is one of misery and depression, and with the movie’s sole focus on Charlie, audiences gain a deeper understanding of depression, how it can shape one’s mindset, and how it can reach a seemingly unacceptable point.
Empathy/Understanding Sparking Hope For Mental Illness
Because of all of these negative factors in Charlie’s life, his only hope is through reconnecting with his daughter, Ellie. Ellie gives Charlie the harsh reality that others refuse to give him through her blunt and hateful personality, stemming from Charlie’s leaving when she was a child. She only stays in his house because he pays her, but her reintroduction displays her clear lack of understanding of Charlie’s lifestyle, which ultimately becomes Charlie’s salvation.
Whenever Charlie has trouble breathing or needs to calm down, he reads Ellie’s old book report on Moby Dick. In the essay, she recounts her sympathy for the whale and its pursuers, contrasting with the lack of sympathy she has for Charlie’s situation. However, as time passes and Ellie familiarizes herself with Charlie, the essay’s importance to Charlie is revealed.
The essay not only links Charlie to the whale and his pursuit of burying his emotions, but also provides an understanding of Charlie feeling out of place, or ‘beached’ in his life, compared to others around him. When Ellie reads the essay to him in an attempt to mitigate the intensity of Charlie’s heart failure, she makes this connection as well, with the last line ending with,
“This book made me think about my own life, and then it made me feel glad for my–.”
This unfinished line lights up the room and puts a smile on Charlie’s face, ending the film with his implied death and newfound peace.
The only thing that ultimately brings Charlie peace, the feeling that he’s relentlessly searched for throughout the movie, is understanding from his daughter, which is achieved through Ellie’s essay and its connection to her father.
Despite the negativity Charlie has for himself, he breaks the norm by keeping an unwavering faith in others. He continuously believes in Ellie despite some of her controversial actions, and he always pushes positivity into his students. Ellie shows that helplessness from mental illness can be overcome, and while it was physically too late for Charlie, he still gained the peace he was searching for.
For people to find hope in their mental illness, The Whale proves that others must be willing to understand it. Charlie shows that depression presents itself in different ways. With the right communities and support systems, along with an understanding of some of the more overlooked effects of mental illness, people can be optimistic about their mental health.
Footnotes
- Aronofsky, Darren. The Whale. A24, 2022. ↩︎
- Singh, Shweta. “How A24 Makes Successful Films.” Purpose Studio, November 18, 2022. ↩︎
- Dean, Sadie. “The Tragedy of Isolation and the Redemption and Salvation of Human Connection: A Conversation with ‘the Whale’ Screenwriter Samuel D. Hunter.” Script Magazine, December 9, 2022. ↩︎
- James, Ol. “How Long Does a Play Usually Last? – the Letter Review.” The Letter Review, May 31, 2022. ↩︎
- “Depressive Disorder (Depression).” World Health Organization, August 29, 2025. ↩︎
- Equip. “The Relationship between Binge Eating Disorder and Depression – National Alliance for Eating Disorders.” National Alliance for Eating Disorders, December 16, 2024. ↩︎
- Weir, Kirsten. “Nurtured by Nature.” American Psychological Association, April 8, 2025. ↩︎
- Freud, Sigmund. “Mourning and Melancholia.” The Standard Edition Of The Complete Psychological Works Of Sigmund Freud, 14 (1914-1916). ↩︎
- “SPOTLIGHT: Beyond Lazy Tropes: The Quest for Authenticity in Fat Representation.” Geena Davis Institute, June 11, 2025. ↩︎
- “‘The Whale’ Garners Controversy for Not Casting an Actor with Obesity as the Lead.” NPR, December 9, 2022. ↩︎
- Syed, Armani. “What to Know about ‘the Whale’ Controversy.” Time, December 9, 2022. ↩︎
- West, Lindy. “The Whale is not a masterpiece – it’s a joyless, harmful fantasy of fat squalor.” The Guardian, 2023. ↩︎
- “Weight Stigma.” World Obesity Federation, 2018. ↩︎