This past weekend Brendan Fraser’s new film The Whale premiered at Venice Film Festival, and when the movie ended, the theater exploded with applause and audience members jumped out of their seats leading to a six-minute standing ovation!
This was all in celebration of Fraser’s performance in the film, and in a video shared online from the screening, you can see Fraser taking in the love as he is looking noticeably emotional as the crowd cheered him on. According to Variety, at one point, Fraser actually attempted to leave, but the cheering from the crowd kept him in the room as he addressed the audience with a bow.
The Whale comes from director Darren Aronofsky and it’s a psychological thriller about a housebound man living with severe obesity. The project is based on Samuel D. Hunter‘s critically-acclaimed 2012 play of the same name. It tells the story of a reclusive English teacher suffering from severe obesity. The six-hundred-pound recluse is hiding away from the world and slowly eating himself to death. He is given one last chance at redemption as he attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.
The movie also stars Stranger Things star Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton (The Walking Dead), and Ty Simpkins (Insidious, Iron Man 3).
Fraser has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years, and it’s awesome. The Whale marks a major return for the actor, but he’s a part of several upcoming projects as well. When talking about his comeback he said:
“I’m just trying to stay in today. So, I guess all I have to deal with is your good selves for the moment. Thank you for the warm reception. I’m looking forward to how this film makes a deep impression on everyone, as much as it has on me.”
When talking about his transformer into this 600 pound man, Fraser said he had to “learn to absolutely move in a new way” for the part:
“I developed muscles I did not know that I had. I even felt a sense of vertigo at the end of the day when all the appliances were removed, just as you would feel stepping off the boat onto the dock here in Venice, that undulating feeling. And I say this because it gave me an appreciation for those whose body is similar because I learned that you need to be an incredibly strong person physically, mentally, to inhabit that physical being.”
When talking about the character he plays, Fraser said the role was a chance to “step into the physical being of another man and tell the rich internal life story that he carries. Charlie is the most heroic man I have ever played because his superpower is to seek the good in others and bring that out in them. In that process, he’s on his journey of salvation.”
Director Darron Aronofsky added: “People are incapable of not caring. I think that’s the most important message to put out in the world right now. Everyone’s leaning into the cynicism and the darkness and giving up hope, and it’s exactly what we don’t need right now. We have to lean into that underneath it all we all do care about each other and that’s really what we have to hold on to and prove to each other.”
Well, I can’t wait to see this movie. The reviews have been wonderful and I’ve included some of these reviews below the video:
Brendan Fraser is back — and he sobbed during the #Venezia79 six-minute standing ovation for #TheWhale. pic.twitter.com/y4l10ZFWQa
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) September 4, 2022
Here are some initial reviews for the film:
Games Radar+: “The Whale is Aronofsky’s kindest work to date, a film that asks its audience to practice acceptance, understanding, empathy, and forgiveness. It unpicks wounds relating to parental abandonment, self-destruction, loneliness, marriage breakdown, and sexual orientation as well as the triggers and tribulations of self-medicating with food. In that, it’s a film that takes the specific and makes it universal. And in the wake of recent global events, it’s likely to prompt catharsis and blubbing for audiences.”
Deadline: “It’s a testament to Fraser’s incredibly soulful portrayal of Charlie that the make-up elements — notably his thinning hair, doughy face and bloated body — become almost invisible once the initial shock of seeing Dudley Do-Right in such terrible shape has passed. But it’s also a mark of Aronofsky’s acuity as director that Charlie never becomes at all freakish or monstrous…”
Variety: The Whale, while it has a captivating character at its center, turns out to be equal parts sincerity and hokum. The movie carries us along, tethering the audience to Fraser’s intensely lived-in and touching performance, yet the more it goes on the more its drama is interlaced with nagging contrivances, like the whole issue of why this father and daughter were ever so separated from each other.
IndieWire: “Without Brendan Fraser’s innate charm and ability to project gentle sadness through the slightest flicker of his huge blue eyes, The Whale wouldn’t have that much else going for it. Faultless performances from Morton and Chau illuminate complicated relationships with Charlie, a man at once lovable, frustrating, and dishonest.”
BBC Culture: “It’s rare to see prosthetic make-up on this scale outside of a body-horror movie, but it’s so well done that the viewer comes to accept it within minutes. What’s even more impressive is that, despite being encased in a mountain of rubber, Fraser is expressive enough to melt your heart. There’s a remarkable nimbleness to his facial movements and a soulful gentleness to his voice, but it’s his wide, pleading, hopeful blue eyes that make it hard to imagine anyone else being as captivating in the role.”