'The Whale' Hit With Fresh Wave of Awful Reviews but Brendan Fraser Praised

The Whale has been wowing audiences at film festival previews, but many critics continue to slam the movie ahead of its release in December.

Darren Aronofsky's film is adapted from a stage play by Samuel D. Hunter and stars Brendan Fraser as a man trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter. Fraser's performance as Charlie, a reclusive 600lb teacher, is tipped to earn an Oscar nomination for best actor and has been widely praised.

However, the film's makers have been criticized for a number of decisions—and particularly because Fraser wears a fat suit to play Charlie.

After playing on the film festival circuit—and garnering a six-minute standing ovation for Fraser in Venice—The Whale held its New York premiere on Tuesday night. Some critics who attended have been scathing about the movie on Twitter.

"The Whale is awful and embarrassing and does not deserve the raw authenticity that Brendan Fraser brings to the role," wrote podcast host and movie critic Brett Arnold.

He added: "Cinematic malpractice that it made me feel *nothing*, every emotional moment plays like parody, especially what should be an impactful ending. So phony. Yikes!"

Two other critics replied to Arnold's post, with A.A. Dowd calling The Whale "maddening garbage" while Guy Lodge described it as "[Aronofsky's] worst film, a major letdown."

In September, another film critic spoke out against The Whale, urging "fat people" not to watch it. "Massive red flags for [eating disorders] and fat phobia," Katie Rife wrote on Twitter. "I have dealt with bulimia and binge eating disorder on and off for years, and found it incredibly triggering."

Speaking from the London Film Festival in October, Fraser and Aronofsky responded to the criticism about the fat suit.

"There's no way you can cast someone to play this job, so we had to use makeup to get there," Aronofsky told Newsweek.

"Most of the people that are playing critique have not seen the film. So, I welcome everyone to see the film because the film is about bringing empathy to characters that you don't expect to feel for."

Fraser, meanwhile, said he hoped The Whale can "change hearts and minds" when it comes to attitudes toward obese people. "I'm not a small man. And I don't know what the metric is to qualify to play the role," he told Newsweek. "I only know that I had to give as honest a performance as I can."

The Whale has a 72 percent rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, so plenty of critics are fans of the movie. However this score, based on 82 reviews, is low for an Oscars contender. Coda, which won best picture in 2021, has a 94 percent rating while King Richard, for which Will Smith won best actor, is at 90 percent.

After Tuesday's premiere, entertainment journalist Rama Tampubolon called The Whale "the best picture of 2022 in my book." On Twitter he touted it to receive Oscar nominations for best director, best actor and best supporting actress for Sadie Sink.

Writer Rachel Leishman also attended the New York screening and tweeted that it would take her some time to "wrap my head around The Whale" but "it feels so [...] good to have" Fraser back.

Another attendee, journalist Hoai-Tran Bui, called The Whale a "machine working so furiously in overdrive that any sense of sympathy turns into spectacle." She singled out Fraser for praise, though.

Movie journalist Alan Zilberman wrote: "All your negative reactions to The Whale make me more curious to see it."

The film will be released on December 9.