review of the whale by Roxane Gay
www.nytimes.com
Here RG reviews the whale. I haven't seen the movie myself, bit I find it's always worth the time to read what RG has to say about how fat people are portrayed
"The film should ask us to see Charlie, the protagonist played by Brendan Fraser, as a person, to understand his grief and mourn with him, to hope for him to pull his life together. But that’s not how the movie was filmed. Most audiences will see the spectacle of a 600-pound man unwilling to care for himself, grieving the loss of his partner who died by suicide, eager to die himself, and using food as the means to that end. The disdain the filmmakers seem to have for their protagonist is constant, inescapable. It’s infuriating — to have all this on-screen talent and all these award-winning creators behind the camera, working to make an inhumane film about a very human being. What, exactly, is the point of that?"
Opinion | The Cruel Spectacle of ‘The Whale’
Stories have an impact. They contribute to perception. And how this film deals with fatness is egregious: exploitative and, at times, cruel.
Here RG reviews the whale. I haven't seen the movie myself, bit I find it's always worth the time to read what RG has to say about how fat people are portrayed
"The film should ask us to see Charlie, the protagonist played by Brendan Fraser, as a person, to understand his grief and mourn with him, to hope for him to pull his life together. But that’s not how the movie was filmed. Most audiences will see the spectacle of a 600-pound man unwilling to care for himself, grieving the loss of his partner who died by suicide, eager to die himself, and using food as the means to that end. The disdain the filmmakers seem to have for their protagonist is constant, inescapable. It’s infuriating — to have all this on-screen talent and all these award-winning creators behind the camera, working to make an inhumane film about a very human being. What, exactly, is the point of that?"
