The Ghost and the Whale

Maurice Benard does a tremendous performance of a bipolar man grieving the loss of his wife in an accident at sea where he can't remember what happened, while navigating the resentment, hate, and doubt of the small town in which he lives, Bodega Bay (of The Birds fame), surrounding his guilt or innocence.

The film gets a lot right; the small town feel of suspicion and factions, the portrayal of untreated bipolar 1 disorder, the different ways in which people deal with grief, or choose not to.

The sub plot of the writer coming to town to investigate Annabel's disappearance seemed superfluous and distracting.

Although his arrival at Bodega Bay, being attacked by a crow with Tippi Hedren sitting on the porch watching was a nice nod to a classic.

Loved the message of the movie. Mental health is not addressed enough in this country. Using an actor who suffers from bi polar in real life was ingenious. I really felt the pain of the character. Tippi Hedren is from one of my favorite movies so I love seeing her. This is definitely worth renting and keep an open mind when watching it.

This film tells the story of a journalist, who goes to a small town to cover a story of a man with bipolar disorder, who is believed to have done something which led to the death of his wife in the sea.

From the description, I thought the film would be an introspective film about a tormented man. In reality, the film is about a group of violent and severely disturbed townsmen who uses every means possible to get their way. The violence is graphic and disturbing. The bipolar man serves only as a vehicle to bring out the violence in the plot. There is little ghost or whale scene, so don't expect these based on the title. After watching the film, I feel disturbed and unsettled.

From beginning to end the movie keeps the viewer interested. The character development is excellent and the story is a troubling view of life through the mind of a bipolar man grieving and searching for answers. Maurice Benard gives an excellent performance convincingly portraying a man torn apart with grief and self destructive guilt in a town with no pity. I would strongly recommend this movie . It was well written, directed and acted.

At the core of the film is an interesting mystery: Did Joseph Hawthorne kill his wife? He's a troubled guy, after all, off his meds and struggling to remember the day she disappeared. It's easy to believe he definitely did crime, and it's easy to believe he definitely didn't. That's where the fun of the film's earliest minutes lies.

The best moments in this film, though, are those involving the character Jack. He generates so much suspense, oh my god. He's eerie from the moment he appears squeezing the spike on a barbed wire fence, and then just fun-to-watch psychotic as he conducts a revenge mission.

He's one of those characters you can't wait to see on screen again, but then when he appears, you kind of dread it because you know everyone is in danger. There's a scene with him and his family in a park that's incredibly intense, evil, and well-performed. My heartrate jacked so high I must've burned 100 calories.

Another highlight includes Dusty Lee, Jack's sister. She's believably creepy and in a lot of the film's most fun scenes. Just a nice spark to Jack's flame. Also, shoutout to poor Ed Hale, who just wants to write an interesting story for the newspaper and ends up having, like, the worst two weeks ever.

Enjoyed the film. The characters speak a lot of the subtext, and some of the relationships would've benefitted from a little more screen time and room to develop, but when the 100 minutes were all over, I was glad I took the journey.