Review of The Whale (2022) by Wiredream — 06 Mar 2023

The Whale was two hours of misery-porn, without a release. Instead of trying to find the humanity in its subject, director Darren Aronofsky is more fascinated with the grotesquerie of the morbidly obese Charlie character (played by Brendan Fraser) - treating him more like a circus freak for the audience to gasp and gawk and repulse at - rather than as a three-dimensional human being. Beating the Herman Melville “Moby Dick” metaphors to a pulp that you want to harpoon yourself out of misery, the screenplay is histrionically melodramatic, leaving no room for nuance, and negating any attempt at depth.

I know Fraser will never be compared to one of the “greats” (or, for that matter, even the “that-goods”), but he’s always been a likable, reliable presence on screen. Here, he’s committed, and, I surmise, effective as Charlie, but you never really forget that it’s Fraser behind the fat suit and makeup. I’m not sure if the fault is on the actor himself or the overwrought screenplay. Maybe it’s both, but I think his probable Oscar win will be more for the return of a beloved and nostalgic Hollywood nice guy, rather than anything resembling transcendence. (MVP of the film is Oscar nominee Hong Chau, who is excellent as Charlie’s long-suffering friend/nurse/sister of Charlie’s dead lover.).

But whether or not Fraser’s performance is award-worthy, it’s a performance that deserves a better movie than this calculating claptrap.