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The Whaleby Darren Aronofsky has finally come to our living room screens thanks toOSN+. The double Academy awardwinner (Best Actor to Brendan Fraser and make-up and hairstyling to Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annmarie Bradley) extends the story of Charlie, a reclusive writing instructor, who teaches remotely (but always keeps his camera off) and has a fond love for Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Charlie’s only real-life contact with other humans is through the delivery man who brings him his pizza and his friend, Liz, a nurse who selflessly saves him from heart attacks and warns him that he is on the highway to death. The film doesn’t sugarcoat the life of the morbidly obese Charlie but slowly reveals the painful reasons behind his sorry state. When he is warned that his life is close to its end he decides to reconnect with his estranged daughter whom he left when he chose to pursue an extramarital affair. Despite her vituperative behavior and vile comments she returns to see him again and again, and Charlie tries, repeatedly, to ask for her forgiveness.

Look for how the overarching metaphor of the whale steals the show at the start and conclusion of the film and the question of whether absolution from one’s mistakes is possible. Overall, Fraser and the cast give a moving performance, and even though the entire film is shot within Charlie’s small, dreary apartment — and mainly from his living room — it makes the journey a lot more poignant and Aronofsky’s characters worthy of sympathy.

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