The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—“The Whale” is the story of a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity (600 lbs) who attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption. It stars Brendan Fraser and it is based on the acclaimed play by Samuel D. Hunter.

Critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website rate this movie with 66% favorable, and audiences with 91%. That website has an audience summary as “With a heartbreaking story brought powerfully to life by Brendan Fraser’s starring performance, The Whale’s as hard to watch as it is to look away from.”

This movie is rated R, and from many movie reviews it sounds as though it should be considered as a fairly hard R, so it is not likely many adults would consider it acceptable for teens, or younger. The Imdb parent’s guide notes that this movie shows sexual images, it has moderate violence, lots of crude language and “F bombs”, some very intense scenes, and it is summed up as depressing and hard to watch. Runtime is 117 minutes.