Nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Hair and Makeup 
Charlie (Brendan Fraser) is dying of congestive heart failure. In his last days, he attempts to reconnect with his teenaged daughter (Sadie Sink) who is bitter and angry that Charlie left her and her mother (Samantha Morton) to live with a man.
I just expected so much more than I got. Aronofsky has made such an oeuvre of questioning and probing religious beliefs and mythology and with a movie named The Whale, I thought surely some take on Jonah, leviathan, fuck, even Pinocchio! Nope. You get a little eschatology, a little left-leaning despair, and a whole lot of depression. I'm actually really sad about it.
Fraser has been burning down all the awards so he's the odds-on favorite in Best Actor. And he's fine here (although a case could be made that he's getting a nom for "uglying up" like they levy at actresses that try and play characters). If Hong Chau won over Stephanie Hsu in an upset, I wouldn't be pissed about it. She's been excellent in everything she did last year. Best Hair and Makeup would be a sham, though. Gary Oldman's fat suit won a few years ago. We don't need another one. Not when there are actual interesting nominees.
It's not streaming (legally) anywhere yet but you should skip it, regardless.
No comments:
Post a Comment