The Whale, a Moby Dick man full of heart

Charlie (Brendan Fraser) will weigh over 250 pounds and is thrown into the chair like a beached and dying whale (has the pressure at 238/134).

It is also difficult for him to get up and walk into his house full of books where he lives alone and teaches a writing class at an online university.

This is the context of THE WHALE by Darren Aronofski and written by Samuel D. Hunter, a film in competition in this 79th edition of the Venice International Film Festival that was applauded at the first press.

A chamber film (based as it is on the Samuel D. Hunter play) with a few characters going in and out of Charlie's always open house.

Here they are one by one: Liz (Hong Chau), sister of the man Charlie loved and for whom she left his wife;

an agitated witness of a very young religious community trying to save him before he dies and, finally, his beloved daughter, Ellie (Sadie Sink, star of the Netflix series Stranger Things), whom he overlooks.

In this confined space Charlie, from time to time, will drown in food, will try as much as possible not to die as well as to overcome the distrust of his daughter who seems to despise him and, finally, will show his students the right path: free their writing and their themselves.

it is something ineffable that gives life to the character and transports us, mind and heart, in all its mystery. "And again Aronofski, director of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, THE WRESTLER, Golden Lion in 2008, and IL CIGNO NERO: "What I love about this film is its invitation to find humanity and potential goodness in everyone.

It is a story that asks a simple question: can we save each other? ".

Says Brendan Fraser, also famous for being the protagonist of the three blockbuster films of the MUMMY: "I had to learn to move in a certain way and also developed muscles that I didn't even know. Charlie is basically a hero, because he has a superpower: to see the good in others and knowing how to bring it out ".

Finally, the talented Sadie Sink: "In every scene you discover something more about me. What Ellie doesn't expect is to find a person who loves her as much as her father, something that pleases her, but cannot accept. ".