Over the course of The Whale, we learn that Charlie ended his marriage to his wife Mary as he was hiding his homosexuality until he fell in love with a man named Alan. This resulted in Charlie losing contact with his daughter Ellie, which he has always felt guilty about.
We learn that Liz's brother, Alan, was Charlie's romantic partner, as well as a member of the New Life church. Liz blames New Life for her brother's extreme unhappiness—because he was told his sexuality went against the will of God—which eventually led to Alan jumping off a bridge and killing himself.
When Charlie's ex-wife Mary showed up to talk to him about their daughter, Ellie's dark and cruel side appeared again. Mary (Samantha Morton) and Charlie divorced when Charlie left them for a student named Alan. Mary severed Charlie's contact with Ellie and wanted to raise her on her own which didn't work out well.
After Alan's death, Charlie's grief turned into depression and led him to develop a binge eating disorder. His unhealthy diet is a way for him to deal with negative emotions.
Finally, there is Charlie's teenage daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink). Viewers get a sense of Ellie's character through a handful of intense, reluctant visits to her Dad's apartment; she is angry with him for abandoning her years ago when he fell in love with Alan.
The Tragic Beauty In The Final Scene Of THE WHALE | Breakdown & Ending Explained
Why did Ellie drug Charlie?
Later that week, during one of her visits, Ellie spikes Charlie's food with some Ambien, a sleep medication, to knock him out. She does this so she can smoke weed without getting in trouble. Coincidentally, Thomas decides to visit during this.
The weight gain for Fraser's role in The Whale involved a mix of makeup, prosthetics, and CGI to make him almost unrecognizable. Despite accusations of fatphobia, Fraser's personal journey with body-shaming added a sympathetic tone to his portrayal of Charlie.
The Whale is difficult to watch, not because of Charlie's size but because it feels as if he is treated as a grotesque, something to be disgusted by, a monster with a heart of gold.
Why doesn t Charlie go to the hospital in The Whale?
Liz gets Charlie regulated and urges him to go to a hospital because he is at risk for congestive heart failure with high blood pressure, but he says he cannot since he does not have life insurance.
The Whale tackles themes of redemption, being oneself, and dealing with grief. Brendan Fraser showcased that and ultimately won an Oscar for his performance as Charlie. The Whale ending brought the powerful and intense drama to a conclusion that requires some more analysis.
The Whale is not a true story but is based on a 2012 play by Samuel D. Hunter, who also wrote the film. Dale Calandra played the original Charlie in a similar transformation to Fraser's for The Whale movie, during the play's original run at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater in Chicago.
She reveals she is the adopted daughter of New Life's head pastor and that Alan was her brother; his religious guilt drove him to suicide, leading a grief-stricken Charlie to start uncontrollably binge-eating.
Religious trauma leading to suicide, love, loss, secrets, regret, redemption, and binge eating disorder are themes in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale. Throughout the movie, Charlie inflicted more pain and trauma on his body with every episode of binge eating. He eats to numb his pain but also sadly to harm himself.
The white whale is a metaphor for the destructive force of nature. Although nature is an anonymous force which takes no sides and simply follows its own natural course, Ahab seems to see nature as something that has power over him, which is something that he cannot accept.
Liz – She is a nurse. Hodgins called her Charlie's "enabler" because she feeds him junk food despite his enormous weight and her own pleading with him to get better medical care. Ellie – Charlie and Mary's daughter.
Why is The Whale being accused of fatphobia? Some of the film's critics believe it perpetuates tired tropes of fat people as suffering, chronically depressed and binge eating.
Charlie eats to sadly harm himself. He is the manifestation of trauma. That what he puts into his body for all that harm that he has endured all his life, he's been derided. It's manifest on who he is as a human being, that's a lot of pain for this man.
TRIGGER WARNING: The script for this film contains extensive fatphobia. Backstories involve homophobic abuse, particularly from religious organizations. The film's cynical take on religion may be upsetting to a churchgoing audience.
Having grown angry at the world due to him abandoning her and her mother for his late boyfriend Alan, she acts hostile and abusive to anyone she comes close to and wants absolutely nothing to do with Charlie, who makes efforts to try and reconnect with her.
“So in that final moment, whatever flaws he had, whatever mistakes he made and in whatever ways he couldn't love himself enough, he lived a life redeemed, because he gave everything to save his daughter.” Whether Charlie dies at the end of “The Whale” is up for debate.
Does Charlie go to heaven at the end of The Whale?
The religious themes of the movie suggest that Charlie did in fact die and go to heaven in the end, but they may have just alluded to a kind of spiritual peace or death of ego that does not necessarily imply a physical death.
The Whale is not based on a true story. It is a work of fiction, even if the play was inspired by Hunter's life. Brendan Fraser's character, Charlie, is not a real person, nor are any of the characters in the film based on real people.
What eating disorder does Charlie have in The Whale?
His binge-eating is unhealthy, almost to the point that he fears he will die of a heart attack, especially when he indulges in some strenuous activity. The emotional upheavals triggered by Charlie's desire to reconnect with his daughter amid these difficulties, make 'The Whale' a compelling watch.
But Fraser has his reasons; issues with his own health and his mothers who has since passed away, personal issues, and being the target of sexual harassment have been cited as reasons he left and stayed away. A journey from which, according to his last performance, he seems to have recovered successfully.
