"The Whale" is a movie built around an essay about Moby Dick, Brendan Fraser in fat guy prosthetics, and the skeletons of the relationships that Fraser's character shares with those around him. It's left up to the actors to fill in the rest, which they (Fraser and Hong Chau in particular) do remarkably well. This isn't enough to make it a good movie, however, and Darren Aronofsky's direction doesn't gel with the performances. The finale, for example, is ruined by a couple of shot transitions (and one horrible thematic indulgence) that took me right out of the drama at a time when Fraser and Sadie Sink were really giving it their all. Maybe a director like Todd Solondz would have done something more interesting with this story. It wouldn't have been Oscar bait -- even for the actors -- but it would have been a better movie.
