Charlie, a literature professor never recovered from the death of his partner.
Immensely unhappy and suffering from morbid obesity, he weighs 270 kilos, can hardly move and lives reclusive from the world, giving his lessons online, in total neglect of food.
When he knows he is condemned to certain death due to heart failure, he attempts a reconciliation with his teenage daughter (Sadie Sink), before it is too late.
Adapted from the play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter,
The Whale
(which means "the whale" in French) is the seventh feature film by Darren Aronofsky, to whom we owe
Requiem for a dream
,
Mother!
or
Black Swan
.
Read alsoPedro Pascal from
The Last of us
, 47 years old and Hollywood's "sexy daddy"
This camera, welcomed by a six-minute standing ovation during its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022, is one of the event films of the year 2023. It is indeed nominated three times for the Oscars, including a nomination for best actor for Brendan Fraser, former Hollywood glory of the 1990s (
George of the Jungle
,
The Mummy
) who has experienced a long journey through the desert.
In
The Whale
, the 54-year-old actor is unrecognizable.
Her radical transformation is the result of daily 6-hour make-up sessions, and the wearing of different combinations, weighing between 22 and 136 kg depending on the scenes of the film;
prostheses that have been digitally modified in post-production.
Interviewed by
Newsweek
, Brendan Fraser described them as "vast, seamless and ponderous".
For this role, he notably worked with the American NGO
Obesity Action Coalition
, in order to understand what obese people can go through, such as the daily battles they face.
Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, Samantha Morton and Ryan Heinke round out the film's cast.
Theatrical release scheduled for March 8.
In video, on the poster of
The Son
by Florian Zeller, Laura Dern confides in the microphone of
Madame Figaro