THE WHALE
4/5
BRENDAN FRASER IS enjoying the mother of all comebacks. The genial actor was huge in the early 2000s, with his easygoing charm making him an appealing presence in films like The Mummy and Blast from the Past. Then Hollywood forgot him. Until now. In Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, he plays Charlie, an obese, reclusive literature tutor confined to his apartment by an excessive weight problem that has got so bad, he has just days left to live. His only real friend is Liz (a spiky Hong Chau), who cares deeply about him. But aside from being bothered by a troubled missionary (Ty Simpkins) at the door, all he wants to do is make up with his estranged daughter Ellie (Stranger Things' Sadie Sink), the casualty in his ruined marriage to exwife Mary (Samantha Morton).
Adapted from Samuel D Hunter's play, The Whale deftly pivots between high-art (never has Herman Melville's Moby Dick been used so poignantly) and sickening lows. It's a red-raw story of redemption, one where Fraser leaves every ounce of himself on screen in what is surely an Oscar-worthy turn. Encased in swathes of prosthetics, he's almost unrecognisable as a man who abuses his body with venom. Some might balk at this particularly a binge-eating scene that is every bit as visceral as the drug-taking in Aronofsky's earlier addiction tale Requiem for a Dream. But the film has a good heart, working its way towards a transcendent finale. It makes you feel desperately for Charlie and his need to reconnect before it's too late.
The Whale is in cinemas on February 3
WOMEN TALKING
3/5
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