Yesterday evening at the European Congress on Obesity 2023, I attended a screening of The Whale.  I had been hesitant to see it.  But it was an intense but fantastic experience.  The screening was followed by a discussion involving healthcare professionals, patients with lived experience of obesity, and the writer, Samuel Hunter.  

Hot take?  I think that screenings of this film should be available to all medical students, followed by informed discussion.

Spoiler alert:  If you haven’t seen the film, the rest of this post will contain spoilers.  But here are just some of the thoughts I had as I watched the film as a doctor who cares for patients with obesity.  

Charlie’s World

It is over-obvious to point out how the film did an excellent job of demonstrating how obesity had limited Charlie’s mobility:  he could no longer walk unaided and struggled for the most basic tasks of daily living, including hygiene and picking up something from the floor.  However, it did an excellent job of making the viewer viscerally feel the restrictive and claustrophic world he has been restricted to by creating the barriers around Charlie:  doorframes he couldn’t fit his wheelchair through and an upstairs apartment he could not leave.  It is both literal and symbolic.

The Door

This is the part I was crying at the hardest at the end.  The door.  The door to Charlie’s apartment is closed.  He wants it locked. He opens it for no one, except Liz (we’ll come to her, just wait). And almost anyone who gets through that door is because Liz has left it open.

It’s simply beautiful writing:  many patients with obesity have a door.  They keep it closed.  They close out people for some any reasons:  mental health, trauma, low-self esteem, guilt.  It can be very, very difficult for them to open up that door to ask for help or to talk to healthcare professionals due to previous bad experiences.

Charlie’s Trauma

The causes of obesity are complex for many patients.  In The Whale, Samuel Hunter gives Charlie significant background trauma including coming to terms with his homosexuality, the struggle of watching his partner suffer from anorexia and then his death by suicide, and the loss of his daughter.  We don’t explore it, but the ex-wife’s alcohol dependence and their tumultuous previous relationship is alluded to as well.  The linear relationship between trauma and obesity is well-established.

Liz

Liz watched her brother die from anorexia; she tried to feed him and lost him. She now looks after her brother’s partner and continues to bring him the food that is, literally, killing him. At the same time, she wants to save Charlie because she couldn’t save her brother.  The complexity of that relationship is beautifully written.

Literary references

The book Moby Dick is referenced throughout the film, and in the title “The Whale”.  That idea that killing the elusive whale will set everything right.  If you haven’t read Moby Dick, I’ll ruin it for you and tell you that the whale represents a problem that can’t be fixed and one destroys oneself in pursuit. It’s also is an intentionally provocative title, playing on obesity stigma.  Ellie is, however, at many points Captain Ahab – struggling with the angery at her father’s abandonment.   There are several other subtle literary references, including the Gift of the Magi type resolution:  All Charlie wants is for his daughter to have his savings, so he won’t pay for healthcare.  The irony being that Ellie wants/needs is a father more than she needs the money.

The Authentic Voice

Throughout the story, Charlie is teaching writing. Both to his online students and his daughter. While Samuel Hunter has said that this story is not autobiographical, there is enough autobiographical detail in there.  The authentic voice. In that respect, there is something meta about this play.  Charlie is living in the hometown the writer grew up in, struggling with some of the same background elements that challenged Charlie, including religion and sexuality.  He brings the authentic voice to his writing that his character Charlie is looking for.