Since its announcement, The Whale has been a film that has garnered as much awards buzz as it has criticism.
Directed by Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem For A Dream) and adapted from an award-winning play by Samuel D. Hunter, the film is about a 600-pound gay man named Charlie who lives an isolated life at home, and attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter years after the death of her mother.
On one hand, the film stars Brendan Fraser as Charlie in a performance that’s earning him the best reviews of his career. With roles in nostalgic favorites like George Of The Jungle and The Mummy series (not to mention an early, awards-worthy breakthrough in Gods And Monsters), he’s a beloved actor who never really got his due, making him especially easy to root for.
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On the other hand, well—where to begin? Fraser underwent a radical transformation for The Whale, but it’s one that includes donning a “fat suit” and has raised questions about the entertainment industry’s continued reliance on makeup and prosthetics, versus actually casting bigger actors.
There have also been criticisms of the way Aronofsky’s film portrays Charlie’s story in a voyeuristic manner—how it might be framing his size as a horrific spectacle—and how it seems to link the character’s binge-eating behavior to his shame around being gay.
Between the casting and controversial subject matter, a number of critics has spoken out against The Whale, including Guy Branum, who labeled it “problematic,” and Daniel Franzese, who said the film is indicative of both the country’s fatphobia and homophobia.
Related: Daniel Franzese slams Brendan Fraser’s casting in ‘The Whale’: “The world is homophobic”
Still, for all the conversation it’s started, The Whale has only played at a few select film festivals, and the general public has yet to see anything from the film aside from one early press photo—until now.
Indie studio A24 has shared the first official trailer for The Whale, and it’s minute-long clip that goes all in on mood and emotion, only providing a few quick glimpses at Fraser’s celebrated yet contentious performance (plus, even quicker glimpses of co-stars Sadie Sink and Hong Chau). It seems the strategy they’re going for is: Let’s make people wait to see the full movie and judge for themselves.
Well, the wait shouldn’t be too much longer, as The Whale opens in theaters beginning December 3. You can watch the brief trailer below:
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Jim
Brendan Frazier has been under rated for far to long.
Hopefully, this will change that.
kish
Gods and Monsters came out in 1998, later in Fraser’s career
MacAdvisor
Let’s not forget his wonderful performance in Twilight of the Golds (1997). I think it is his best performance.
bachy
Fraser has always seemed to me to be an alternative Tom Hanks.
Stan H
Over the last year I have lost 90lbs. I find the title offensive. Daniel Franzese should of been given the part but perhaps maybe he might of been “Too Young”.
Den
“There have also been criticisms of the way Aronofsky’s film portrays Charlie’s story in a voyeuristic manner—how it might be framing his size as a horrific spectacle—and how it seems to link the character’s binge-eating behavior to his shame around being gay.”
When somebody weighs 600 lbs it IS a horrific spectacle, and making that clear is hardly body shaming. It is a life threatening condition regardless of the cause or what the person’s self image may be. And it becomes increasingly difficult for people in that condition to live unassisted or free from health issues of all sorts. Portraying it that way is not voyeuristic, but realistic. We are not talking about someone who is 50-100 lbs overweight, this is a disease and not “within the range of (possibly) acceptable human variation. Franzese would have also needed a “fat suit” to portray a 600 lb man, and given his size may well not have had the physical stamina to function in it that Fraser might have.
And I know people in the morbidly obese range (300 or so lbs of mostly adipose tissue) who in fact HAVE come to be that obese as a result of shame for various reasons (mostly childhood sexual abuse or shame). That is not that uncommon, and in a work of fiction, it is simply part of the dramatic arc, not a statement about all morbidly obese people. We’re way beyond Lizzo here, who is undoubtedly obese but clearly able to maintain her strength and agility (while actually making a spectacle of herself, albeit a well adjusted and purposely entertaining one). Contrast her with John Moreland, an incredible singer/songwriter who at 400+lbs is unable to stand when he performs.
As for the title, one might as easily (and foolishly) criticize Eugene O’neill for writing the play “The Hairy Ape”. It is art, it is not journalism or social theory and is not subject to the same kinds of evaluation.
I look forward to seeing it (probably on the small screen).
Pistolo
What’s controversial to me isn’t that he’s straight or not overweight….
it’s that EVERY gay character portrayed in a mainstream project has to be pathetic. We have to always be pitying gay men, apparently. They can’t be witty in a non-stereotypical way, they can’t kick ass, they can’t love themselves….they have to be pleading for society’s approval. Or, you know, just unimportant to the plot or ancillary. Or a joke, we can be complete jokes if need be too.