Since the Venice premiere of the film The Whale (The whale), a lot has been said and written regarding Brendan Fraser’s performance. For the most part, we focused on the fact that the idol of the 1990s-2000s is making a stunning comeback there. It’s true and it’s not. Because if Fraser indeed delivers a dazzling interpretation in front of the camera of Darren Aronofsky, the angle of the “ come-back is perhaps, all things considered, misleading. In that, according to the actor’s own words, he never left. It is us, the public and the media, who are momentarily disinterested in him. Anyway, we can only feel gratitude towards Brendan Fraser, expected at the Oscars. Indeed, we are talking here regarding a state of grace, and we feel privileged to witness it.
From a play by Samuel D. Hunter, who wrote the screenplay, The Whale is the eighth film from acclaimed yet divisive director Darren Aronofsky. For instance, Requiem for a Dream (Back to Brooklyn), The Wrestler (The wrestler) et Black Swan (The black swan) aroused a rave consensus, but The Fountain (Fountain), Noah (Noah) et Mother ! (Mother !) have divided. so far, The Whale received a mixed reception, but everyone agrees on the shocking game of Brendan Fraser.
The star plays Charlie, a teacher who lives in seclusion in his apartment. Grieving for his lover, Charlie doesn’t just “eat his emotions”: he buries his grief under an astronomical amount of food until, sooner rather than later, death ensues.
Before leaving, however, Charlie wants to make peace with his daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink, excellent), a belligerent teenager born from the time when, in the closet, he was married to a woman.
Come and go to these places haunted by grief: Mary (Samantha Morton, brief but striking), the ex in question, Liz (Hong Chau, fabulous), who lavishes care and rough affection on Charlie, as well as Thomas (Ty Simpkins ), an invading young missionary. Unlike the others, this character, like all of his dramatic background, appears to be flat.
Obviously, this is an inherent weak point of the piece.
A transcendent presence
However, the film has its own problems. As in his Mother !Aronofsky devotes himself here behind closed doors: an always risky bet, in that the confinement specific to the exercise can willingly prove to be at the antipodes of cinematographic possibilities.
However, despite a direction of photography typically inspired by Matthew Libatique and evocative and significant compositions both psychologically and symbolically, we often have the impression of attending a TV theatre. Following the screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, we wrote “The door to Charlie’s apartment slams open and closes so often that at times it feels more like a Feydeau than an American tragedy. »
But, there once more, there is Brendan Fraser, who “carries, elevates and transcends” the film. In this regard, it is appropriate to return to the remarkable prostheses and make-up (designed by the Montrealer of origin Adrien Morot) weighing a total of 300 pounds that the actor sports, whose character exceeds 600 pounds (272 kilos).
In recent years, rightly, voices have been raised once morest the use of what is called undiplomatically in the industry of “ fat suits (“wholesale costumes”), usually used for dubious humorous purposes. Except that, precisely, in this case, it is quite another thing because of the involvement of Brendan Fraser.
The watermark story of the story
That is to say, the actor’s Hollywood journey and the evolution of his appearance make the artifice not only defensible, but fascinating. In the eyes of many, the star was for a long time, and above all, a muscular body endowed, incidentally, with a sympathetic personality.
Admired and objectified for his Apollo physique at the time of George of the Jungle (George of the Jungle) et of the saga The Mummy (The Mummy), Fraser ruined his body and his health through overtraining and dangerous stunts: severe injuries, constant pain, depression, not to mention an alleged sexual assault perpetrated by Philip Berk, then president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ( which oversees the Golden Globes)…
Brendan Fraser said he took on extra pounds for the role, but notwithstanding that, being overweight is now his reality.
From then on, by his presence charged with a unique personal and public history, Fraser allows the film to formulate, implicitly, an important commentary on the tyranny of appearances. And that is an inherent strength of the film.
