Hollywood and, let’s face it, lots and lots of moviegoers, love nothing more than a professional comeback. Adored for a time, a star suddenly connects failures, we lose interest in it, the industry forgets it, and so do we: familiar air. Except that, sometimes, a filmmaker remembers this actor, this actress, who marked him in the past. Some performers thus return, sometimes, to the spotlight. This is the case of Brendan Fraser in The Whale, where he upsets as a man in mourning for his lover. His infinite pain, he buries it under the food he ingests until death ensues.
Presented at TIFF, the film is directed by Darren Aronofsky, a magician from the comeback : we will come back to this.
Very popular in the 1990s and early 2000s with box office hits like George of the Jungle and the saga The MummyBrendan Fraser lived a long crossing of the desert: successive operations linked to too many stunts, sexual assault alleged by the then president of the Foreign Press Association in Hollywood (which oversees the Golden Globes), mourning, depression…
His athletic body, for which he was admired and which he overtrained for his action movies, is gone. Certainly, in The Whale, Fraser wears prosthetics and magnifying makeup (whose weight amounts to 300 pounds), but his background makes the artifice honest. And there is the actor’s face, so expressive, which remains unchanged.
Knowing all this, and also knowing that Fraser, regardless of the quality of the films in which he appears, is a fundamentally likeable actor, we can only rejoice in this golden lead role imagined by the playwright Samuel D. Hunter, who signs the script from his play. The film is not without flaws, with its repetitive and, yes, theatrical staging: a surprising observation since Darren Aronofsky is a filmmaker usually more audacious on the formal level (see black swan). The door to Charlie’s (Fraser) apartment slams open and shut so often that at times it feels more like a Feydeau than an American tragedy. But there is Brendan Fraser, precisely.
Anyone who has seen him in the past school ties Where Gods and Monsters already knows that he is a solid dramatic actor, much more than his popular roles make it appear (although). Except that in The Whale, the actor reaches a true state of grace. It’s backed by a fabulous cast — Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), Hong Chau (Downsizing), Samantha Morton (Morvern Callar) — but it’s his film. He carries it, elevates it, transcends it. Attending his performance is a privilege, and whether or not one has reservations about the film, it is impossible, at the end, not to have eyes drowned in tears: of sorrow for the protagonist, of joy for his interpreter.
Good background
It was mentioned from the outset, Darren Aronofsky is not his first miracle in terms of career resurrection. We will remember that in 2008, his film The Wrestler brought back to the fore Mickey Rourke, former Beau Brummell of the 1980s (see 9 1/2 weeks) become unrecognizable from plastic surgeries and injuries sustained while boxing. The role of wrestler on the return, in constant danger of suffering one injury too many, THE injury too many, suited him like a glove.
His fabulous work in the film earned him an Oscar nomination. Alas, the sequel saw him make bad choices. Conversely, his co-star Marisa Tomei, who was also making a comeback, and also an Oscar nominee, subsequently had more flair than him.
However, before The Whale and The Wrestlerthere was Requiem for a DreamDarren Aronofsky’s second film, and the one that established him as a filmmaker to follow, in 2000. Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr. telling the stories of intertwined addictions of a young man, his lover, his his best friend, but also his mother, Requiem for a Dream revealed Jared Leto, allowed Jennifer Connelly to establish herself as a gifted actress and adult after starting out as a child… Above all, the film allowed moviegoers to rediscover Ellen Burstyn.
A prodigiously talented actress, Ellen Burstyn became a headliner in her early forties (“late” by two-speed Hollywood standards). After notable appearances in The Last Picture Show and The King of Marvin Gardensshe won in 1973 the role of Chris MacNeil, this woman whose daughter is possessed in The Exorcist : a role none of which star female then had not wanted. We know the rest.
The following year, his performance in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, again as a single mother who manages somehow, earned her the Oscar for best actress. There were other good movies, but actresses weren’t allowed to grow old in Hollywood, leading roles turned into supporting roles, and then the phone stopped ringing. Burstyn had been a reputable acting teacher for years when Aronofsky contacted her.
In Requiem for a Dream, she was once again able to explode at the cinema, with her name at the top of the marquise. Its composition as a lonely woman who develops an addiction to diet pills so she can don a happily ever after dress in hopes of competing on a TV quiz show is mind-blowing. Yes, she won an Oscar nomination for best actress. Since then, she has not stopped filming, often with interesting filmmakers. This is the grace we wish Brendan Fraser.
The film The Whale hits theaters December 9.