Box office The Whale grossed $17.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $39.5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $57.6 million. It then expanded to 1,500 venues on the sixth week of its theatrical run and passed $11 million domestically, somewhat breaking the perceived ongoing trend that the general public was losing interest in
prestige films in a moviegoing environment altered by the
COVID-19 pandemic. These results were attributed to the praise and awards buzz for Fraser's performance.
Critical response Review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 64%, based on 347 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Held together by a killer Brendan Fraser,
The Whale sings a song of empathy that will leave most viewers blubbering." According to
MovieWeb, the film polarized critics and audiences.
The Whale received positive feedback at the
Toronto International Film Festival, with particular praise for Fraser's, Chau's and Sink's performances. When the film had a limited theatrical release,
Variety reported that the reviews "have been polarizing, with others [than
Varietys review] criticizing the film's portrayal of fat people".
Glenn Kenny of
RogerEbert.com praised Aronofsky's direction and Fraser's performance, writing that the "story is one of different levels of heartbreak and human misunderstanding" and "Aronofsky and Fraser have taken substantive risks, in the name of an insistent empathy." Robbie Collin of
The Telegraph gave it a perfect five stars, writing: "Fraser seals his comeback in a sensational film of rare compassion."
Richard Roeper of the
Chicago Sun-Times described the film as an "empathetic, haunting, beautiful, heartbreakingly moving story of a broken man". He named it best film of the year and deemed Fraser's performance as his career's best.
Variety chief film critic
Owen Gleiberman also praised Fraser, calling him "slyer, subtler, more haunting than he has ever been". Matthew Creith of
Out Front wrote: "The highlight of
The Whale comes from an outstanding turn from Hong Chau, who gives a memorable performance in a vital role that balances Charlie's outlandish behavior." Hannah Strong of
Little White Lies praised Fraser and the "strong ensemble,” highlighting Sink's "tricky role" in which she "captures the anger and sadness that comes from parental abandonment", and stating that while Aronofsky "isn't a particularly empathetic filmmaker" and
The Whale is not without flaws, the film "reflects tenderly on shame, guilt, and the human impulse to care and be cared for".
Richard Lawson of
Vanity Fair wrote that the film is "meant to be a poignant consideration of guilt, sexuality, religion, remorse" but "we really only know that because the movie shouts it at us". He also criticized Fraser's performance as "lost". Mark Hanson of
Slant Magazine felt that Aronofsky reins in his "typically ostentatious style", but that "considering how Libatique's camera leeringly treats Charlie as an unsightly object of pity throughout, it's difficult to deny the film's
fatphobia, though its mawkishness is no less oppressive". Katie Rife of
Polygon wrote: "If you look at
The Whale as a fable, its moral is that it's the responsibility of the abused to love and forgive their abusers. The movie thinks it's saying 'You don't understand; he's fat because he's suffering.' But it ends up saying 'You don't understand; we have to be cruel to fat people because we are suffering.' Aronofsky and Hunter's biblical metaphor aside, fat people didn't volunteer to serve as repositories for society's rage and contempt."
Mark Kermode gave the film a negative review. He said the film relies heavily on emotional manipulation to elicit a response from the audience. Kermode also commented that while Brendan Fraser's performance is commendable, the film's portrayal of obesity and its related struggles is problematic and lacks sensitivity. The film has received criticism for its portrayal of the main character.
Time magazine stated: "Some of the film's critics believe it perpetuates tired tropes of fat people as suffering, chronically depressed and binge eating." On the podcast ''Don't Let This Flop
, Rolling Stone'' writer EJ Dickson said the film was criticized for its use of a
prosthetic suit instead of casting a fat actor, with accusations that it "stigmatizes and mocks fat people". On
NPR's culture section, Jaclyn Diaz reported that this criticism extends to detractors calling the film's premise "inherently dehumanizing". Writing for
The New York Times,
Roxane Gay expressed her opinion that the film's empathy was only superficial and that the depiction of Charlie reinforced
anti-fat stereotypes and preconceptions. She wrote that although Aronofsky said he wanted to give an empathetic portrayal she "was bewildered because an empathetic portrayal isn't at all what was conveyed onscreen. As I looked around the audience, I was struck by the fact that there were only four or so fat people in the audience and none on the stage." Director Darren Aronofsky defended the film, saying the criticisms "make no sense". Aronofsky further said that "actors have been using makeup since the beginning of acting—that's one of their tools. And the lengths we went to portray the realism of the makeup has never been done before", adding that "people with obesity are generally written as bad guys or as punch lines, we wanted to create a fully worked-out character who has bad parts about him and good parts about him". He said of fat people that "they get judged everywhere they go on the planet, by most people. This film shows that, like everyone, we are all human".
Top ten lists The Whale was on many critics' top ten lists for 2022. • 1st –
Richard Roeper,
Chicago Sun-Times • 2nd – Brian Truitt,
USA Today • 4th – Lauren Coates & Susan Wloszczyna,
RogerEbert.com • 5th – Carla Renata,
RogerEbert.com • 6th – Richard Whittaker,
Austin Chronicle • 6th – Jeff Sneider,
Los Angeles Magazine • 7th – Mike Scott,
New Orleans Times-Picayune • 9th – Peter Debruge,
Variety • 9th –
Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle Accolades ==Notes==