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The-Whale-web

March 7, 2023 @ 7:00 pm

Venue

Tidemark Theatre
1220 Shoppers Row
Campbell River, BC V9W 2C8 Canada
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CRFF The Whale

Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in this arrestingly intimate drama from director Darren Aronofsky.

Writing instructor Charlie (Fraser) never seems to have his webcam enabled while teaching online. He makes excuses and is so good-natured that no one makes a fuss, but the real reason for his invisibility is his appearance. Charlie weighs 600 pounds. When his obesity starts to pose a grave threat to his health, his friend Liz, a nurse, begs him to check into a hospital, but also recognizes that it might be more important to simply offer support.

Charlie’s current status quo is upended by the return of his long-estranged adolescent daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink), though her willingness to resume a relationship seems prompted as much by Charlie’s offers to ghostwrite her school essays as it is by her sense of familial loyalty. Meanwhile, Charlie receives visits from a door-to-door evangelist (Ty Simpkins) who engages him in a dialogue about redemption that, despite Charlie’s lack of religious inclination, proves surprisingly resonant. Can any of these folks, regardless of their personal agendas, serve as the lifeline to self-acceptance that Charlie so urgently needs?

The Whale invites us to identify with a man in a precarious state of isolation that has been exacerbated by a potentially lethal mix of technology and our culture of body shaming.

“Alongside The Wrestler, The Whale is Aronofsky at his most compassionate. It’s a gargantuan invitation to empathy and understanding.” –John Bleasdale,
Cinevue

Tickets: $15 Admission (+applicable taxes and fees)

Rated R for language, some drug use and sexual content