Movie Number 8 of 2023
The Movie: The Whale
The Cinema: The Rivoli, Camberwell
Stars: 4.5
Disclaimer: I love Brendan Fraser. I've loved Brendan Fraser forever. He's a bit dippy and all sweet and Canadian. He's also one of the best actors I've ever had the privilege to see on stage. It was over 20 years ago. He was in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, along with Ned Beatty as Big Daddy and Frances O'Connor as Maggie the Cat. The second act was incendiary. It's still up there with the best theatre I've ever seen. And if you've never seen Gods and Monsters, it's worth looking that one up too. He's great in that too. As a young man he was just my type. Now, as somebody my age, he's still my type... ah well, we can dream.
So now we come to The Whale.
Brendan Fraser plays Charlie, a morbidly obese reclusive college professor, who's coming to the end of his life. As the film goes on, we find Charlie on the path to redemption, reconciling with himself, his daughter and the circumstances that lead to the situation in which he finds himself.
This is a close, almost claustrophobic film, using a shortened screen, rather than the whole screen to add to the feeling of closeness. The film is based around Charlie's apartment, and other than a couple of shots outside, the action does not stray from this dank, over-run space, all of which adds to the tone. Darren Aronofsky has done well on this. Unlike Black Swan, which I found a heap of pretentious wank, this was beautifully pitched mixing both the pathos and horror of Charlie's situation.
Over the course of the film which takes place over a week, he is visited by a number of people. His estranged daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink) who plays the angry teenager to the max. There's a missionary kid, Thomas (Ty Simpkins) who tries to redeem Charlie.
And there's Liz (Hong Chau) who is Charlie's primary carer and, yes, enabler. This performance has earned Chau a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. It's well deserved. She runs the gamut of every emotion as she watches the self-destructive Charlie destroy his life.
This is Brendan Fraser's film. He is sublime as this tortured man who only wants the very best for his daughter. He's encased in a fat suit and works the physicality of the this to the hilt. He tends to every nuance of Charlie's condition. At times it's hard to watch. But no matter what you may think - Brendan Fraser is seriously underrated and deserves every accolade thrown his way.
My only real criticism of the film is that as an adaption of a play, this keeps one too many of the theatrical elements. One too many of the supporting characters come crashing through the front door. This is what knocked it down to 4.5 stars. This is my only real misgiving of the film.
It's a great movie. You'll need tissues.
And I'm very glad Brendan Fraser is getting the roles and the recognition he deserves. I will always sing his praises and I'm half tempted to put five bucks on him winning the Oscar.
No comments:
Post a Comment