The Whale, Darren Aronofsky’s latest film about an obese English teacher, has been released in the US today.
The film has been much anticipated: not only did it split the critics, but it is the first film from the award-winning Black Swan director in five years, and it sees the triumphant return of Brendan Fraser to the silver screen. Fraser’s career was put on the back burner over the last decade after the actor suffered from a series of health issues and other setbacks.
Although in the UK there are still several months to wait until the release of the film, this doesn’t mean fans aren’t already getting excited.
“I would love to see the whale I’ll just have to be patient until it comes to the uk [sic],” Tweeted one fan, while another said: “Hearing all of the responses to The Whale is making me even more sad that it doesn’t have a release date in the UK yet.”
Hearing all of the responses to The Whale is making me even more sad that it doesn’t have a release date in the UK yet. I can imagine that it’ll probably get released closer to award season next year, due to Brendan Fraser’s performance receiving Oscar buzz.
— Katie (@katieisafilmfan) October 12, 2022
So if you have been hearing about the forthcoming film, but are short on the details, here’s everything there is to know about The Whale.
The Whale release date
Happily, it’s not too long now to wait until The Whale’s UK release date: the film is set to come out on February 3.
The film is from superstar film studio A24, which has also audiences Uncut Gems, Lady Bird, Euphoria and Moonlight.
The Whale plot
The Whale is about Fraser’s character Charlie, a gay, morbidly obese, reclusive English teacher. When he is teaching his students on Zoom (with his laptop’s camera disabled) he is wise and thoughtful, but in his spare time, he can’t stop eating and masturbates to porn.
The film is about his attempts to reconnect with his daughter, Ellie, who is played by Stranger Things’ star Sadie Sink.
The Whale is playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s screenwriting debut and is based on his 2012 play of the same name. Hunter won the highly sought-after $625,000 MacArthur Fellowship in 2014 for his collection of theatre work, which included The Whale.
In a December interview with The Guardian, Hunter explained his choice to portray some of the character Charlie’s more indelicate elements, saying: “As a writer, I didn’t want to make any apologies.”
What did the critics say?
Interestingly, despite a six-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, Aronofsky’s (on the whole) glistening track record and having whipped up a tonne of Oscar buzz for Fraser, reviews for The Whale haven’t all been that complimentary.
The Standard, for example, said: “If The Whale was a meal, it would be a stale and, yes, cheesy pizza. Slice this anyway you like, it belongs in the bin.”
The New Yorker said: “The Whale is laughably earnest, larded with melodrama.”
The New York Times took issue with the relentless portrayal of the obese man: “Nearly everything about Charlie — the sound of his breathing, the way he eats, moves and perspires — underlines his abjection, to an extent that starts to feel cruel and voyeuristic,” concluding that the film was, “swamped by its grand and vague ambitions. It’s overwrought and also strangely insubstantial.”
AP, however, called the film “a hard but astounding film to watch” while US Today called it “heartbreaking and enrapturing”.
The Whale cast
There has been much talk about Aronofsky’s choice to cast Fraser, rather than an obese actor, in the leading role.
Screenwriter Hunter said: “All that matters is knowing that the actor can bring tenderness and generosity amid Charlie’s pain and suffering,” adding, “I have nothing to say about the discourse.”
Fraser apparently had to sit for as many as four hours a day in the make-up chair just to transform into Charlie – he wore heavy prosthetics and was incredibly hot during filming. Speaking at the Venice Film Festival conference the actor said: “I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed; it was like stepping off the dock onto a boat in Venice.”
He added: “That [sense of] undulating. It gave me appreciation for those whose bodies are similar. You need to be an incredibly strong person, mentally and physically, to inhabit that physical being.”
In an interview with Variety, Aronofsky explained: “There was a chapter in the making of this film where we tried to research actors with obesity... Outside of not being able to find an actor who could pull off the emotions of the role, it just becomes a crazy chase. Like, if you can’t find a 600-pound actor, is a 300-pound actor or 400-pound actor enough?”
He added: “From a health perspective, it’s prohibitive... It’s an impossible role to fill with a real person dealing with those issues.”
Other actors joining the cast include Hong Chau who has recently starred in Mark Mylod’s black comedy The Menu, Avengers: Endgame star Ty Simpkins and English actor Samantha Morton.
Why is it being seen as Fraser’s big comeback?
Fraser was one of Hollywood’s biggest actors in the Nineties: he starred in School Ties in 1992, Airheads in 1994, George of the Jungle in 1997 and The Mummy in 1999.
Mega-fans might also remember his roles in Dudley Do-Right in 1990, Blast from the Past in 1999, Bedazzled in 2000 and in Monkeybone in 2001.
But taking on so many projects took its toll on Fraser’s body and the Indianapolis-born actor had to subsequently undergo years of surgeries. But this wasn’t all, as he also went through a divorce, was allegedly assaulted, lost his mother to cancer in 2016 and reportedly subsequently suffered from depression.
The result was that although Fraser did continue to have acting roles, such as in Hagai Levi’s The Affair in 2016–2017, his career lost its momentum. So now, in a triumphant return, The Whale sees the actor take up his first major leading role in years.
Fraser is next in Martin Scorcese’s Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon which is set to be released in 2023, where he will star alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
