The Venice Film Festival officially has a winner of hearts: Brendan Fraser. After the premiere of his film, the audience clapped so long until the actor himself had tears in his eyes. And there was a lot of sobbing in the press presentations too. No wonder: With his fantastic performance in The Whale, Fraser should be one of the favorites at the next Oscars. Unfortunately, the drama by cult director Darren Aronofsky doesn’t even come close to what its leading actor achieves.
Brendan Fraser impresses as the dying 600-pound man
At the center of the story is Charlie, a very overweight professor who no longer leaves his apartment – or can leave it. After the death of his partner, Charlie gained a lot of weight, now weighs over 270 kilos and is on the verge of heart failure. His only contact with the outside world are his students (whom he doesn’t show his face to), the pizza delivery man who comes by every day (who has to leave the boxes in front of the door) and his best friend Liz (Hong Chau), who doesn’t just shop for him, but also provided him with medical care.
As a reminder, this is what Brendan Fraser looked like in The Mummy
The Mummy – Trailer (German) HD
When Charlie has a heart attack, Liz confronts him with a harsh truth: if he doesn’t get to the hospital, he will die in the next few days. But Charlie doesn’t have health insurance and decides he’d rather do something he’s put off for far too long: reconcile with his teenage daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink). However, she is more interested in the missionary (Ty Simpkins) of a doomsday sect, who suddenly keeps appearing at her father’s door.
When the first pictures of The Whale were released, many were shocked: This swollen face belonged to Brendan Fraser, the former teen heartthrob from The Mummy? Yet Fraser’s weight gain and fatsuithe wears for the film are only half the battle. The actor plays Charlie as a lovable man who, despite his worldly sophistication and his social nature, is isolated in his apartment and trapped in his self-made body, absolutely touching. The way the cast meshes, the human tragedy that unfolds between these characters, is masterful. Nevertheless, the film is not a masterpiece.
Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale is a cerebral mixture of German homework and Sat.1 Film Film
© Photo: Niko Tavernise
Sadie Sink plays rebellious teenage Ellie in The Whale
The Wale has effective scenes that will make you laugh, bring tears to your eyes, or make you squirm in your seat awkwardly. That is not the problem. Nevertheless there is not a single moment in the film that surprises. Nothing that you haven’t seen somewhere else in one way or another. The result feels like a Frankenstein film, designed at the drawing board for maximum Oscar suitability and finally stapled together from bits and pieces from other films.
The sarcastic best friend who has no other purpose in life than to help the protagonist? Check. The nasty ex-wife who first pours hard alcohol into a glass of water, but then ends up sentimentally remembering the old days? Check. And of course: the self-sacrificing father who only never contacted his traumatized teenage daughter to protect her. Top it off with a few “Fat person has a low point and experiences a binge eating, which we stage in the most disgusting way“Moments and an ending that even a Sat.1 Film film would be ashamed of because of its bombast – and the film is finished.
Not even visually does the person responsible come up with anything interesting. Sure, a protagonist who is almost motionless and doesn’t leave his colorless couch for 70 percent of the film not the easiest prerequisite for exciting shots and tracking shots. But at least we are talking about Darren Aronofsky! The guy who managed to make even MATHS look interesting with Pi 1998.
In the end, The Whale seems like a school assignment that Aronofsky and author Samuel D. Hunter set themselves: come up with a film idea in which the life of the protagonist an allegory on the literary classic Moby Dick is and repeatedly shows clear parallels to the template. The result would be cerebral, emotionally manipulative run-of-the-mill drama if Brendan Fraser and the rest of the cast didn’t save their master director’s ass like this. You can watch, but you don’t have to.
Are you looking forward to The Whale?