The Whale (2022)

The Whale rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb7.6/10· 282K votes

Rotten Tomatoes64%

Metacritic60%

TMDb7.772/10· 5K votes

With 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 7.6/10 on IMDb and 60/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been mixed.

About The Whale

A reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

Cast of The Whale

• 

  Brendan Fraser

  as Charlie

• 

  Sadie Sink

  as Ellie

• 

  Ty Simpkins

  as Thomas

• 

  Hong Chau

  as Liz

• 

  Samantha Morton

  as Mary

• 

  Sathya Sridharan

  as Dan the Pizza Man

• J

  Jacey Sink

  as Young Ellie

• 

  Allison Altman

  as Young Mary (uncredited)

• 

  Lance Oppenheim

  as Julian (uncredited)

• G

  Grace Perkins

  as Maddie (uncredited)

• 

  Wilhelm Schalaudek

  as Liam (uncredited)

• 

  Glenn Mullins

  as Young Charlie (uncredited)

The Whale facts

Budget

$3M

Box office

$57.6M

Our take on The Whale

Darren Aronofsky's 2022 drama traces a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity as he reaches, over a handful of days, toward the estranged teenage daughter he abandoned. Working from a confined single setting, it becomes an intimate study of guilt, grief and the hunger for redemption before it's too late. This is a small, dialogue-driven chamber piece rather than a plot-heavy one, so it rewards viewers drawn to raw emotional performances and questions of forgiveness over incident. Expect discomfort and tenderness in equal measure. If you value character work that sits close to its subject and refuses easy answers, it's a demanding, memorable watch.