The Whale Review: Brendan Fraser Shines In A Overwrought, Underbaked Drama
There are a few films, each awards season, whose attractiveness index seems to rise almost exclusively because of the lead role: the actors are so indelible in the role that they transcend the flaws and faults of the film built around them. (Rene Zellweger in Judy Was the One a few years ago or Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody, both of which won Oscars.) operatic ensemble. . in the midst of a drama so masochistic and theatrical that it often feels less like a movie than a test of patience, or worse, a parody.
To be fair, the set owes at least part of the fact that it was actually a play that director Darren Aronofsky had spent the last decade trying to bring to life on screen (and playwright Samuel D. Hunter also wrote). adaptation). . It's no secret why the man behind Black Swan, The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream found a dark psychological drama about deeply broken people compelling; however, what he found convincing here is not so easily seen. Charlie Frazier in the opening scene is just a voice on a black Zoom screen. That's because he teaches remotely at an online university, but his excuse for a broken laptop camera is a lie: the truth is that he's too fat, so ugly that he can't leave his messy apartment or even stand up without a walker. . He can almost bathe and eat by himself, but other activities (masturbation, laughing) make him too wet and out of breath to breathe.
A24 Brendan Fraser in The Whale.
There are tools for just about everything physical that you can't do yourself: handles and rollers in the shower, a special seat in the bathroom, even claws for anything that might fall on the floor. And a friend named Liz (Hong Chau from Watchmen) faithfully comes every day to check her vitals and bring groceries. Liz is also a nurse and constantly tells him that she is dying. But he's often interrupted by knocks on the door: first a serious young missionary (Ty Simpkins) named Thomas who hopes to spread the word, and then Ellie (Stranger Things' Sadie Sink), his daughter, an estranged teenager. the only words for it are, firstly, parody atomic bombs. The envious, venomous Ellie hates him because she left her mother (Samantha Morton) years ago for another man, but most of all she hates everything.
the story goes on
Aside from one brief flashback, the action as it stands today is entirely limited to Charlie's dilapidated apartment, where his guests regularly come to share bits of history or settle scores. Fraser, wearing the elaborate prosthetic that Aronfoschi likes to photograph as Caravaggio, full of shadows and cold milky light, greets everyone, even the missionary boy. Charlie knows he is suicidal, but hardly complains or feels sorry for himself; instead, he is emotionally generous almost to the breaking point, a man who still tries to spread his love for Walt Whitman and Moby Dick and socialize alone, even if his efforts are ridiculed or scorned.
Bringing Liz's bright acidity and beauty, he and Chau often seem to draw from a different well than their co-stars. But all actors are left to create their own levels of characters with a few common backstories: a teenager from hell, a restless soul, a man too big to live. This dynamic is best reproduced on stage, where a sort of bold accent serves the live audience. Here she often comes across as clumsy and overly volatile, trapping Fraser in the undeserved melodrama of her charmingly understated acting. Whatever the whale wins, and the main prizes have already been raffled off, he deserves it. The rest are just friends. Grade: C
Relative content:
