The Whale is an upcoming psychological drama that stars Brendan Fraser in the lead role and the supporting cast includes Sadie Sink, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton, Hong Chau, Sathya Sridharan, Ryan Heinke and Huck Milner. The film is directed by Darren Aronofsky with a screenplay from Samuel D. Hunter. The film is from the studio which has given us most of the best indie films of this decade A24. Resurgence 90s action star Brenda Fraser would be seen in this film. He will be seen in a role he has hardly played. The Whale has an extremely simple yet impactful premise: “600-pound (272 kg) middle-aged Charlie tries to reconnect with his seventeen-year-old daughter. The two grew apart after Charlie abandoned his family for his lover, who later died. Charlie then went on to binge eat out of pain and guilt.” The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and many who got an opportunity to see The Whale have given their thoughts, let’s see what they have to say.
The Whale Reviews: Brendan Fraser Gives an Unseen Performance?
The film has been extremely well received and reports say it got a 6 minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival after its premiere. While most have praised Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink and the other child actors have done good job as well. Just when we thought we’d seen the last of Brendan Fraser, he is back and he is back with a bang. The film at the time of writing has an IMDb score of 9.3/10 and the film is rated Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 83%. While we can only judge a film once we’ve seen it, these reviews certainly give us idea. Let’s see what the critics have to say.
John Bleasdale
CineVue
“Alongside The Wrestler, The Whale is Aronofsky at his most compassionate. It’s a gargantuan invitation to empathy and understanding.”
Original Score: 4/5
CineVue
“Alongside The Wrestler, The Whale is Aronofsky at his most compassionate. It’s a gargantuan invitation to empathy and understanding.”
Original Score: 4/5
Glenn Kenny
RogerEbert.com
“With The Whale, Aronofsky and Fraser have taken substantive risks, in the name of an insistent empathy. I think, and my tear ducts agree, that those risks paid off.”Bilge Ebiri
New York Magazine/Vulture
“Once everything finally collides in The Whale, something shattering and beautiful and honest emerges.”Rory O’Connor
The Film Stage
“[Brendan Fraser’s] performance is strangely beautiful, one of those rare roles that seems to draw on years, if not decades, of a performer’s personal misfortunes and harness them into something profound.”
Original Score: B+
RogerEbert.com
“With The Whale, Aronofsky and Fraser have taken substantive risks, in the name of an insistent empathy. I think, and my tear ducts agree, that those risks paid off.”Bilge Ebiri
New York Magazine/Vulture
“Once everything finally collides in The Whale, something shattering and beautiful and honest emerges.”Rory O’Connor
The Film Stage
“[Brendan Fraser’s] performance is strangely beautiful, one of those rare roles that seems to draw on years, if not decades, of a performer’s personal misfortunes and harness them into something profound.”
Original Score: B+
Raphael Abraham
Financial Times
“Body horror takes a new form in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which chronicles the long, slow suicide of a morbidly obese man with pitiless candour but an abundance of empathy.”Wendy Ide
Screen International
“Fraser is courageous and fully committed in his first major leading feature film role for around a decade.”Robbie Collin
Daily Telegraph (UK)
“A piercing, compassionate parable about grace and reconciliation, told with truly Biblical force.”
Original Score: 5/5
Financial Times
“Body horror takes a new form in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which chronicles the long, slow suicide of a morbidly obese man with pitiless candour but an abundance of empathy.”Wendy Ide
Screen International
“Fraser is courageous and fully committed in his first major leading feature film role for around a decade.”Robbie Collin
Daily Telegraph (UK)
“A piercing, compassionate parable about grace and reconciliation, told with truly Biblical force.”
Original Score: 5/5
Jane Crowther
Total Film
“Quibbles and conversation starters aside, The Whale is Aronofsky’s kindest work to date, a film that asks its audience to practice acceptance, understanding, empathy, and forgiveness.”
Original Score: 4/5
Hannah Strong
Little White Lies
“A film that – while not without flaws – reflects tenderly on shame, guilt, and the human impulse to care and be cared for.”
Hanson
Slant Magazine
“With The Whale, Darren Aronofsky brings a hollow sense of dignity to his schematic brand of cinematic misery porn.”
Original Score: 1.5/4
Slant Magazine
“With The Whale, Darren Aronofsky brings a hollow sense of dignity to his schematic brand of cinematic misery porn.”
Original Score: 1.5/4
Leah Greenblatt
Entertainment Weekly
“It often feels clumsy and maddeningly inconsistent, stranding Fraser in a melodrama undeserving of his lovely, unshowy performance.”
Original Score: CAlysha Prasad
One Room With A View
“This devastating portrait of one man’s unyielding grief and his need to seek redemption through those closest to him, is handled with a great deal of empathy from Aronofsky, and will break your heart in two.”
Original Score: 5/5Chris Bumbray
JoBlo’s Movie Network
“The hype is real, Brendan Fraser is extraordinary.”
Nicholas Barber
BBC.com
“The Brenaissance is here.”
Original Score: 3/5
A.A. Dowd
Digital Trends
“The elaborate full-body makeover of The Whale is no less real than anything else in this fatally overwrought melodrama of compulsion and atonement.”
Digital Trends
“The elaborate full-body makeover of The Whale is no less real than anything else in this fatally overwrought melodrama of compulsion and atonement.”
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
“It’s a redeeming film about salvation, that has great performances from the talented cast and a superb one from Fraser.”
Original Score: BZhuo-Ning Su
Awards Daily
“The Whale captivates from start to finish. For a film that has one set and stars an actor who’s barely mobile, that’s a remarkable achievement however you slice it.”Richard Lawson
Vanity Fair
“The Whale is meant to be a poignant consideration of guilt, sexuality, religion, remorse. We really only know that, though, because the movie shouts it at us.”
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
“It’s a redeeming film about salvation, that has great performances from the talented cast and a superb one from Fraser.”
Original Score: BZhuo-Ning Su
Awards Daily
“The Whale captivates from start to finish. For a film that has one set and stars an actor who’s barely mobile, that’s a remarkable achievement however you slice it.”Richard Lawson
Vanity Fair
“The Whale is meant to be a poignant consideration of guilt, sexuality, religion, remorse. We really only know that, though, because the movie shouts it at us.”
Geoffrey Macnab
Independent (UK)
“[The Whale] is stagy and mawkish. Watching it, you feel grossly manipulated but the approach is undeniably effective.”
Independent (UK)
“[The Whale] is stagy and mawkish. Watching it, you feel grossly manipulated but the approach is undeniably effective.”
Original Score: 4/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
“Fraser is certainly a showstopper here, and his level of emotional prowess of the kind but broken Charlie is so exceptional it often forgives a stagey theatricality Aronofsky can’t quite avoid.”
Original Score: 3/5
“Fraser is certainly a showstopper here, and his level of emotional prowess of the kind but broken Charlie is so exceptional it often forgives a stagey theatricality Aronofsky can’t quite avoid.”
Original Score: 3/5
The Whale had a limited theatrical release in some countries on 4th September. It will release in the US on 9th December 2022.
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