{"id":19253,"date":"2022-12-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=19253"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:11:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:11:43","slug":"review-the-whale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-the-whale\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Whale<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We first see Charlie as his students see him: as a black box in a Zoom class. \u201cThe camera on my laptop still doesn\u2019t work,\u201d he chuckles. \u201cYou\u2019re not missing much.\u201d When he\u2019s finally seen, he\u2019s masturbating so furiously he nearly has a heart attack. Severely obese, his blood pressure is 238\/134; he suffers from hypertension and congestive heart failure. \u201cYou\u2019re wheezing,\u201d notes his friend and nurse Liz (Hong Chau). \u201cI always wheeze,\u201d he replies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As everyone on the planet must know by now, Charlie is played by Brendan Fraser in a physically transformative performance; he put on weight for the role, and used prosthetics and make-up to convincingly portray a man whose weight is so out of control, whose health is so bad, that he only has days to live, since he absolutely refuses to go to the hospital. Darren Aronofsky\u2019s The Whale<\/em> spends a week with him, from Monday to Friday, and observes him. He watches television. He teaches his remote classes. He reads and recites from a mysterious, elementary essay on Moby Dick <\/em>that\u2019s meaningful to him, though at first it\u2019s not clear why. And most of all, he eats, sometimes for comfort, sometimes out of defiance \u2013 at his lowest moments, it\u2019s something resembling taking control, paradoxically enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, however, there are changes. He\u2019s visited, on multiple occasions, by Thomas (Ty Simpkins), a missionary for the \u201cNew Life Church\u201d who wants to save Charlie\u2019s soul before he shuffles off. And Charlie reconnects with his 17-year-old dirtbag daughter Ellie (Sadie Sinnk), cold and cruel, whom he hasn\u2019t seen in years, and who has a rather monumental chip on her shoulder about that. He wants to square things away with her while he still can. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be angry at the world,\u201d he assures her. \u201cYou can just be mad at me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Whale<\/em> has worked the festival circuit, it\u2019s been met with both praise and a fair amount of controversy, with its motivations of empathy and humanizing called into question by some of its critics (and by some critics of its critics). This is tricky stuff; \u201cfat suit acting\u201d has become rightfully scorn-worthy, and the occasional jokes at Charlie\u2019s expense can sting in a theatrical setting, where audiences tend to nervously laugh at him, rather than with him (as those in the film are, mostly). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ultimately, those issues bothered this overweight critics less than the more pressing issue: that the script is absolute drivel, a patently phony work that betrays its roots as a stage play at every turn. It\u2019s not a question of \u201copening up\u201d; Aronfsky, an extreme stylist, resists that urge, and in fact increases the claustrophobia of its single setting by shooting the film in a tightened, 4:3 frame. It\u2019s that the script is so \u201ctheatrical,\u201d in terms of structure, set-up, and payoff, and it becomes more transparently (and irritatingly) so the longer it goes. There are vast differences between film and theater in terms of how and when exposition and information is imparted, and the most maudlin plays do so at staggered intervals, in overwrought confessions and dramatic monologues. And that\u2019s what The Whale<\/em> does, over and over, with the added insult of Rob Simonsen\u2019s syrupy, push-button, FEEL THIS NOW score, which is much too much at every turn \u2013 the worst kind of Joker<\/em>-style hyper-tragic treacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Hunter\u2019s script is full of gaping flaws. The eventual byplay between the daughter and the missionary isn\u2019t credible for a second \u2013 it\u2019s silly enough to pretty much derail the picture \u2013 the dialogue in his reunion with his ex-wife (Samantha Morton, doing her best) is hammy and overcooked, and the ending is a machine of manipulation, every aspect carefully arranged throughout the script for maximum payoff at its conclusion, no matter how nonsensical those beats seemed when introduced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The performances are, it must be said, noteworthy. Chau\u2019s jumpy mix of impatience and warmth is affecting, and despite all the false beats of the scene that follows, the way Morton says \u201cCharlie\u201d the first time she sees him again is what screen acting is all about. And Fraser, as you\u2019ve certainly heard, is marvelous; the way he weeps, \u201cI need to know that I have done one thing <\/em>right with my life\u201d is undeniably powerful, and a late scene of binge-eating is like a punch in the face. The acclaim he\u2019s received, and will continue to field, for his work here is understandable. And it\u2019s a shame, because it\u2019s a far better performance than the material deserves. \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

D+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Whale” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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