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’s estranged teenage daughter, the acerbic and bitter Ellie, who can make him see any kind of future beyond his current despair. In Ellie’s 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
