In a run-down apartment in rural Idaho, surrounded by screens and food containers, a six-hundred pound recluse doggedly and determinedly eats himself to death. As he inches closer and closer the inevitable, his friend Liz, a cynical atheist nurse, and Elder Thomas, a young, hopeful Mormon missionary both attempt to find in Charlie the will to be saved, physically and spiritually. However, it is only Charlie鈥檚 estranged teenage daughter, the acerbic and bitter Ellie, who can make him see any kind of future beyond his current despair. In Ellie鈥檚 words -- stunningly honest, despite her constant barbs -- Charlie finds one last chance for redemption, and perhaps even a bit of hope.
The Whale guide sections
