The Whale
A24 | Release Date: December 9, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 57 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
23
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatAbhishek SharmaMar 14, 2023
The cast’s commitment throughout The Whale allows Aronofsky to create a tearful experience. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperDec 19, 2022
Fraser becomes Charlie and infuses him with intelligence, pathos, humor and heart. It is one of the best performances of the year in one of the best movies of the year. Read full review
100
The Associated PressMark KennedyDec 8, 2022
This is a film that stays with you and changes you. It is heavy, indeed. Read full review
100
USA TodayBrian TruittDec 7, 2022
The Whale is an exquisitely soulful tale that avoids forgettable sentimentality. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 4, 2022
Fraser’s casting is so moving in part because we can still recognise this beloved figure under the blubber, but it’s also because Fraser’s own performance doesn’t court pity. His Charlie is complex, flawed, funny and otherwise fully and radiantly human: a rounded character in more ways than one. Read full review
91
The PlaylistJack KingSep 4, 2022
What it boasts in abundance — in this riveting study of a deeply broken man, suffocated by nine years of self-immolation — is a rare and deep compassion, elevated by Fraser’s starring turn. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 4, 2022
The intense chamber drama never disguises its stage roots but transcends them with the grace and compassion of the writing and the layers of pain and despair, love and dogged hope peeled back in the central performance. Fraser makes us see beyond the alarming appearance to the deeply affecting heart of this broken man. Read full review
88
ABC NewsPeter TraversDec 9, 2022
Brendan Fraser is on the march to Oscar. That's how astonishing his acting is as a morbidly obese recluse in this deeply moving character study. Accusations that wearing a fatsuit diminishes his tour de force performances are nonsense. This is essential viewin Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 19, 2022
Fraser, so good, takes what could be a joke, a flat tragedy, or even a lecture about weight and imbues it with gorgeous humanity. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorSep 4, 2022
The Whale is Aronofsky at his most trimmed down. Read full review
80
Little White LiesHannah StrongFeb 3, 2023
It’s a pleasure to see Fraser given a role he can put his heart into, and his nuanced performance saves The Whale from turning into a ghoulish spectacle or a very artfully shot episode of TLC’s exploitative reality show ‘My 600lb Life’. Read full review
80
Time OutDan JolinOct 12, 2022
Yes, he is at times hard to watch. But Fraser makes The Whale a deeply empathic and touching experience. Read full review
80
Total FilmJane CrowtherSep 6, 2022
Quibbles and conversation starters aside, The Whale is Aronofsky's kindest work to date, a film that asks its audience to practice acceptance, understanding, empathy, and forgiveness. Read full review
80
CineVueJohn BleasdaleSep 6, 2022
Alongside The Wrestler, The Whale is Aronofsky at his most compassionate. It’s a gargantuan invitation to empathy and understanding. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriSep 5, 2022
Once everything finally collides in The Whale, something shattering and beautiful and honest emerges. Read full review
80
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 4, 2022
For all his shame, and the shuttered windows and disconnected webcams that block out the world outside, there’s a magnetism to Charlie and his big, overburdened heart which draws others – and us, as an audience – to him. Read full review
80
The IndependentGeoffrey MacnabSep 4, 2022
The pathos is laid on very thick. At times, you wonder why a filmmaker as sophisticated as Aronofsky is resorting to such manipulative tactics. Beneath all its blubber, though, this turns out to be a film with a very big heart. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenMar 12, 2023
The fat suit is in a sense a distraction in that you wonder how Fraser was able to act within it. But the fact that he does so and so effectively makes The Whale a searing, moving experience. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleDec 14, 2022
As in “The Wrestler,” Aronofsky presents us with a protagonist whose physical appearance is forbidding, and then shows us their delicacy of spirit. He films Charlie’s home with just a hint of the macabre, which serves as a counterbalance to any whiff of sentimentality in the script. The Whale doesn’t make a lunge for your emotions. It earns them. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreDec 1, 2022
Buried in a “fat suit,” his physical acting limited to the life of immobility Charlie has sentenced himself to, Fraser will break your heart playing the character’s pain and compassion. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenOct 14, 2022
The movie belongs, without question, to Fraser, whose performance relies not on pity or saintliness (Charlie has his faults as well), but a gentle, even beguiling belief in dignity for all. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekSep 4, 2022
Sometimes an actor can help minimize a director’s shortcomings, and that’s what Fraser does here. Read full review
67
Original-CinJim SlotekDec 19, 2022
Despite what redemption there ultimately is, The Whale is a feel-bad movie. But in a movie marketplace saturated with homogeneity, at least it inspires you to feel something. Read full review
67
IndieWireLeila LatifSep 4, 2022
For Fraser, The Whale is a confident leap forward into the movie-star status that he rightfully deserves. Read full review
65
TheWrapBen CrollSep 4, 2022
Like the hundred pounds of latex cast over Fraser’s body, the film itself requires its performers to act through an overbearing pall. But for the most part, it has room for only one voice. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzDec 21, 2022
The one overwhelmingly positive thing that you’ve heard about The Whale is true: Fraser does a remarkable job. Read full review
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