The draw for The Whales of August is its cast of legitimate Hollywood legends. Lillian Gish, Bette Davis and Vincent Price are three actors who helped define cinema as both an art form and a commercial enterprise. The film looks as though it was meant to be a tribute to the three of them, but sadly it is something closer to an embarrassment. Tedious and boring, it’s a film of reflection that does just that and nothing more, bringing attention to the fact that there are three ageing legends on the screen rather than actually doing anything with them in any meaningful way.
Sisters Sarah (Gish) and Libby (Davis) live together in a quaint Maine cottage by the sea. Both in their golden years, Libby, blind, is ready to pack it in and call it a life. Sarah, on the other hand, is still full of energy and inspiration. So much so that she’s willing to fall in love one last time with a similarly-aged neighbour (Price) who was recently widowed.
Too much time is wasted lamenting over the product of time, or rather its passing. Talk of months and reflections on its passing are too blatant symbols for the closing years of the characters’ lives. Parallels run with the stars themselves who all were nearing the end of their lives at the time of the film’s release.
It’s hard not to get emotional watching this movie, but it’s more because of the people who portray the characters rather than the characters they portray. The Whales of August plays like some sort of retrospective for Gish, Davis and Price, all of whom spent so many years making dozens of memorable films. Because film has the magical ability to freeze time, it’s easy to watch old movies and see Gish as Laura Belle McCanles from Duel in the Sun or Davis as Julie Marsden from Jezebel. Here, though, they show that they are not ageless relics but just as human as the rest of us. Their faces wrinkled, their voices fading. These images break down the window between the never-aging reflection on the screen and the always aging audience.
But like a career retrospective you watch on an awards show or special program, The Whales of August isn’t exactly exciting or even entertaining. It’s a little nostalgic, but that’s about it. At many points, it’s hard to watch. There is little going on other than Libby and Sarah babbling back and forth over their past. While the original hype around the release of this film might have been earned by its stars’ earlier work, the film does nothing to back it up. The names of Lillian Gish, Bette Davis and Vincent Price will never be forgotten by film lovers. The Whales of August, on the other hand, surely will be.
