Whale Music is a 1994 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Richard J. Lewis

Richard J. Lewis

Richard J. Lewis is a television and film director born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.From 2002 to 2009, Lewis worked on the CBS television crime`drama series, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as writer, director and co-executive producer....

. It is based on the comic novel of the same name

Whale Music

Whale Music is a novel by Canadian writer Paul Quarrington. It was first published by Doubleday Canada in 1989.The novel's central character is Desmond Howl, a reclusive former rock star who has lived in virtual seclusion from the world since the death of his brother Danny in a car accident...

 by Paul Quarrington

Paul Quarrington

Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...

 (who also wrote the screenplay).

Plot

The film stars Maury Chaykin

Maury Chaykin

Maury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...

 as Desmond Howl, a former rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 star who has lived in seclusion in a seaside mansion since the death of his brother Danny (Paul Gross

Paul Gross

Paul Michael Gross is a Canadian actor, producer, director, singer and writer born in Calgary, Alberta. He is known for his lead role as Constable Benton Fraser in the television series Due South as well as his 2008 war film Passchendaele, which he wrote, produced, directed, and starred in...

) in a car accident. Howl spends his time composing a symphonic masterpiece for the whale

Whale

Whale is the common name for various marine mammals of the order Cetacea. The term whale sometimes refers to all cetaceans, but more often it excludes dolphins and porpoises, which belong to suborder Odontoceti . This suborder also includes the sperm whale, killer whale, pilot whale, and beluga...

s who congregate in the ocean near his property. His reason for this is revealed in the title of one of his songs, "Have You Seen My Brother?" — Danny died by losing control of his car and driving off a cliff into the ocean.

One day, however, Howl awakens to find Claire (Cyndy Preston

Cynthia Preston

Cynthia Preston , sometimes credited as Cyndy Preston, is a Canadian television and film actress.Preston was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada...

), a mysterious young woman, in his living room. Although Howl's world is disrupted, Claire ends up inspiring him to complete the symphony, to write his first great pop song in years, and to begin seeking connections with people again.

The character of Desmond Howl is based largely on Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson

Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...

.

The cast also includes Kenneth Welsh

Kenneth Welsh

Kenneth Welsh, CM is a Canadian film and television actor . He is known to Twin Peaks fans as the multi-faceted villain Windom Earle, and has more recently played the father of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator.In 1984 he was nominated for a Genie Award as Best Actor for his...

, Jennifer Dale

Jennifer Dale

Jennifer Dale, née Ciurluini , is a Canadian television, dancer, and actress.- Early life :She is the sister of Canadian actress Cynthia Dale...

, Jim Byrnes

Jim Byrnes (actor)

James Thomas Kevin "Jim" Byrnes is a blues musician, guitarist, and actor.-Life and career:Byrnes was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a homemaker mother and a municipal accountant father. He has lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, since the mid-1970s...

, and Quarrington in a cameo appearance as a bartender.

Soundtrack

Music for the film was written by Rheostatics

Rheostatics

Rheostatics was a Genie Award-winning Canadian indie rock band, active from 1980 to 2007.Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been...

 and released on the soundtrack album Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music

Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music

Music from The Motion Picture Whale Music is a 1994 album by Rheostatics. It is the soundtrack to the film version of Paul Quarrington's novel Whale Music, and should not be confused with the band's 1992 album Whale Music....

. The song "Claire" was a Top 40 hit for the band in 1995. Quarrington had chosen the Rheostatics to compose the soundtrack because he had liked their 1992 album Whale Music

Whale Music (album)

Whale Music is a 1992 album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics. It should not be confused with the soundtrack to the film Whale Music, which was also composed by the band and released in 1994....

, which was itself inspired by Quarrington's novel.

External links

• Whale Music at the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  
• Review in Variety, September 12, 1994