Whale Music

Based on Paul Quarrington's award-winning novel, which in turn is loosely based on the life of Brian Wilson, "Whale Music" should be a much better film than it is. Maury Chaykin is so well cast as Des you'd think Quarrington wrote the character with him in mind, and the whale music itself (composed by Canada's greatest band, Rheostatics) is terrific, but the movie is a disappointment. The novel is a wonderfully entertaining read, however, and the story is much better developed in print; another commentator has mistakenly written that the flashbacks concern Des's son when they feature his brother, Danny (or Dennis Wilson).

If your main interest in film is the exploration of character, "Whale Music" has something to offer you. And you'd better like that, because it's all that's on show here. The script is certainly meandering, and a little bit aimless. It takes a real long time to get anywhere, and when it does, you might question if the journey was worth it. But the actors are good. Maury Chaykin and Cynthia Preston work believably together. Chaykin, especially, has a convincing internal struggle.

I suspect a braver film could have eliminated the secondary characters and amped up the issues and delusions and emotions of Chaykin's character. There's enough here to make a worthwhile film, but you get the sense that more could have been achieved with the material provided.

I have seen this movie 3 or 4 times, about every five years it seems, and enjoyed it immensely each time. Most recently it was on Bravo! channel coming just days after Maury Chaykin's passing.

The movie is worth seeing if only for Chaykin's performance, and for the beautiful music. The soundtrack is great on its own but hearing it in the context of the movie makes it that much better.

Chaykin was one of the greatest character actors and when you give him an oddball role such as this lead one, he brings it to life like no one else can. The irony of his performance, speaking for myself anyway, is that I feel the saddest for him at his happiest moment in the movie.

Judging from only 353 votes on IMDb, this movie needs more viewers!

A friend of mine recommended this movie, citing my vocal and inflective similarities with Des Howl, the movie's main character. I guess to an extent I can see that and perhaps a bit more, I'm not very sure whether or not that's flattering portrayal.

This is a pretty unique work, the only movie to which this might have more than a glancing similarity would be True Romance, not for the content or the style of filming or for the pace of dialogue (Whale Music is just so much more, well, relaxed.) But instead that they both represent modern love stories.

In general I'm a big fan of Canadian movies about music and musicians (for example I highly recommend Hard Core Logo) and this film in particular. It has an innocent charm, Des is not always the most likeably guy, but there's something about him that draws a sterling sort of empathy.

I was amazingly impressed by this movie. It contained fundamental elements of depression, grief, loneliness, despair, hope, dreams and companionship. It wasn't merely about a genius musician who hit rock bottom but it was about a man caught up in grief trying drastically to find solace within his music. He finds a companion who comes with her own issues. Claire and Des were able to provide each other with friendship and love but more importantly a conclusion to events which had shaped their life for the worst.

Des is an unlikely character by todays standards of a rock star. Yet he has musical genius. He also has an event in his past that has made him stagnate, while things around him literally go to ruins. His focus is creating his Whale Music, in fact it becomes an obsession for him.

Claire is the streetwise kid that needs a place to stay. She finds hidden talents while being in Des company. She also finds a mutual friend that accepts her. She learns to trust him over a period of time.

These two find love with one another. Not the mind blowing, sex infused kind of passion, but a love where friendship and understanding means more. For two people who have been hurt, they find trust together.