Only you can save yourself!

The Whale (2022)
Director: Darren Aronofsky

We all carry on our lives, deluding ourselves that we can save others. We are convinced we can cajole the divine forces into changing the universe's trajectory to accommodate our easy passage. We think we can indeed influence others to engineer their own future path. We naively believe our hard work certainly will make them fight their inner demons and move towards the right direction. As if we, ourselves, are so cocksure of the right road to happiness as if we have traversed them before. And our current journey is akin to a trip 'Back to the Future'!

Using the allegory of the 1851 classic 'Moby Dick' by Hermann Melville or alternatively titled 'The Whale' in which the main character, Captain Abad, is fixated on hunting down an albino whale, the story tells us how we fill up our lives with so many unnecessary things that bring most minor benefits. The whaling ship's Captain is hellbent on avenging a whale that crippled him, forgetting his real purpose of going to sea, for whaling and making a profit.

The author of the book went on tangential writing about all the various places, people and species of animals that the Captain failed to appreciate, blinded by his emotion. Are these the real reason for our existence? To learn and enjoy all the beauty and experiences around us that completes us?

This highly emotionally charged movie tells the story of a morbidly Charlie who left his alcoholic wife and his 8-year-old daughter to start life anew with his newfound sexuality and a student boyfriend. The boyfriend is a preacher's son whose father vehemently opposed the unholy union. Unable to handle the pressures from his preacher and the retribution of the wrath of God as depicted in the Bible, he becomes depressed, anorexic and finally takes his own life. Charlie, on the other hand, indulged in binge eating after the loss. He becomes a recluse and becoming a morbidly obese individual. Charlie is seriously ill with congestive cardiac failure at the verandah of death but refuses any treatment. He wants to save his money to pass it to his daughter.

The mainstay of the story involves his ex-wife, who pays a visit to discuss their uncontrollable daughter, who is not doing well in school and Charlie trying to reconcile with his daughter. The other two characters are his boyfriend's sister, a nurse, who is the only person he is in touch with daily and a part-time evangelist who tries to convert him.  

The clear take-home message is that nobody can save another person in trouble. Getting out of trouble is the onus of the affected party alone. He has to realise his predicament, get his posterior out of his chair and wriggle himself out of his mess. There is no shortcut. People react differently to the same stress (like anorexia and binge eating, as in this film). No one solution fits all.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.