Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
A moving picture
This morning I’m still in the grip of the movie we watched last night. We were at Donna’s, as usual, and decided to try out “The Whale”. We knew it would be a drama and we were aware that Brendan Fraser won the Oscar for Best Actor the other night. We just didn’t know how compelling the movie would be. When it was over we sat in our own silences for several minutes. There were some tears, too.
The message of this picture is crystal clear to me: it is possible to commit slow suicide by deliberately abandoning self-care and by burying any sense of self-worth. Charlie, the main character, has eaten himself into a 600+ pound state. The reasons why are revealed as the story unfolds. He is painfully aware that people may find him disgusting and he spends a lot of dialogue apologizing to the few people left in his life. He is sorry for existing, and he knows that he will soon be dead as a result of his tragic compulsive eating.
Donna was stunned at the end. On the way home, Jan told me she hated the movie. It was difficult to watch but I am glad I did. It hit me hard because I know very well that my drug of choice is food. Charlie’s relationship with food and eating was so distorted, but I get how that happens. I understand that it is one way to stuff feelings and I know that I have used food as an escape all my life.
There is an epidemic of obesity in our country. The CDC cites the obesity prevalence as 41.9% of the population and the medical costs of treating the resulting illnesses as around $173 billion dollars a year. Those are startling statistics.
It’s not just in the United States. Yesterday I was doing some research on Mexico for one of my clients. In the process I came across a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development about medical care in Mexico. The government pays large sums of money to cover the cost of obesity related illnesses. It turns out that Mexico’s obesity rate is greater than most of the other 38 member countries. As a result, the incidence of diabetes and heart disease increases exponentially.
In the movie, Charlie consumes huge quantities of food in one sitting. There is no joy in this behavior. Instead there is profound shame and self-loathing after a binge. These are symptoms of eating disorders, another epidemic in our country. It is estimated that 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from Anorexia, or Bulimia, or Binge Eating Disorder. An article titled “Behavioral Nutrition” (behavioralnutrition.org) states, “Because disordered eating originates from a combination of genetic, environmental, and individual factors, the path to developing such a disorder is complex, and is likely as unique as each person affected.”
Brendan Fraser deserves his Oscar. He portrays the sadness that surrounds Charlie all the time so realistically that I was immediately sympathetic. At the same time I was appalled by his size and the limitations that it imposed on him. He clearly knew that he was dying and he welcomed this reality.
“The Whale” is not based on a true story, but contains some elements of its writer’s early life. It is a stage play adapted for the screen. For me it was an emotionally raw experience. As a person “of size”, as we overweight people are labeled, it came too close for comfort. But the lesson will stay with me for a long time.