The Whale (Darren Aronofsky, 2022)

[mfunk9786]

Aronofsky's next film will be an adaptation of Samuel D. Hunter's play The Whale for A24.

The New York premiere of The Whale played at Playwrights Horizons in 2012.

On the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, a six-hundred pound recluse (Mr. Hensley) hides away in his apartment eating himself to death. Desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen. Big-hearted and fiercely funny, The Whale tells the story of a man's last chance at redemption, and of finding beauty in the most unexpected places.

Writing in The Denver Post on the World Premiere of The Whale at Denver Center Theatre in January, Ray Mark Rinaldi called it, "A rich night of theater. Very much a play of today and audiences ready to engage the times should understand its rewards."

[mfunk9786]

Brendan Fraser(!!) to star

[knives]

Sounds a bit Wrestler-y. Either way sign me up for more Aronofsky who has matured into a really great filmmaker.

[domino harvey]

Brendan Fraser(!!) to star

He has an unusual amount of good will in recent years that has yet to materialize into any awards prospects, but I could see him turning a juicy part like this into an Oscar nom

[Magic Hate Ball]

Can we not with the fat suits?

[mfunk9786]

Will need to get with some casting people but I'm not sure that 600 lb actors who can presumably (though I don't know the full narrative here) drop weight as shooting goes on is particularly long

[Magic Hate Ball]

...and? That's not much of an excuse. Also, there's no transformation in the play, it's kind of like one of those "fattest person alive" misery porn tv specials but with a plot about mormons and Moby Dick.

[domino harvey]

It is literally the best "excuse," not that there needs to be one

[Magic Hate Ball]

"We couldn't find a real disabled person for our exploitation film, so..." just feels like a very outdated approach.

[domino harvey]

Being fat is a not a protected class

[Magic Hate Ball]

Frankly, given the widespread and well-documented discrimination fat people face, it should be, and in the case of The Whale, the main character is literally disabled.

[knives]

I believe Sir Laurence Olivier said it best when calling it acting because you act. Not every film needs to be Stromboli casting fishermen to play fishermen.

[therewillbeblus]

I believe Sir Laurence Olivier said it best when calling it acting because you act. Not every film needs to be Stromboli casting fishermen to play fishermen.

And then Bill Burr said it even better

[RitrovataBlue]

Fat suits will most likely one day be looked at the way brownface is today. Being fat isn't anything like being locked in a panic-stricken nightmare, and that's Aronofsky's trademark. I run hot and cold on Aronofsky (Requiem and Pi are excellent; The Wrestler and Black Swan were fine; Mother! was downright insulting), but this sounds utterly abysmal.

[Brian C]

I seriously doubt fat suits will be looked at the same way as blackface; at any rate, as a fat dude, I’ll try as hard as I can to stop it from happening.

[therewillbeblus]

I run hot and cold on Aronofsky (Requiem and Pi are excellent; The Wrestler and Black Swan were fine; Mother! was downright insulting), but this sounds utterly abysmal.

I’m mostly cold on him but would say conversely that mother! is excellent and Requiem is “downright insulting” to the marginalized population its exploiting

[flyonthewall2983]

Put me down for this sounding terrible. I could see this being so bad it being deemed un-releasable by A24, and it going to a distributor even further down the food chain or not put out at all.

[aox]

I didn't even know the human body could exceed 500, let alone 600, pounds. So, I got that out of this movie already.

[mfunk9786]

Put me down for this sounding terrible. I could see this being so bad it being deemed un-releasable by A24, and it going to a distributor even further down the food chain or not put out at all.

Aronofsky has done this kind of story before with The Wrestler to, arguably, the greatest acclaim and success of his career, and the play it's based on was also widely acclaimed. So it's hard to say why this would sound terrible to just about anyone, unless they reject the premise of depicting obesity onscreen? Didn't care for any of Aronofsky's work/think he's altogether incapable of making a good film?

Being fat isn't anything like being locked in a panic-stricken nightmare

Speak for yourself!

[dwk]

I didn't even know the human body could exceed 500, let alone 600, pounds. So, I got that out of this movie already.

I guess you haven't seen many ads for TLC's crap "reality" shows. Consider yourself lucky.

[Brian C]

I remember a story in my 4th-grade Weekly Reader about a dude who, if memory serves, weighed about 1,000 pounds and had decided to diet. It was the second story on the front page - the lead story was about all the candidates in the 1988 presidential primaries.

[mfunk9786]

From the looks of some recent photos, it looks like Fraser is indeed gaining the weight to play this role. Perhaps they're shooting in reverse order or something?

[therewillbeblus]

Hasn't Fraser been a bit heavier-set for a while now though? Maybe not to that degree, but I seem to recall seeing him in photos prior to his casting announcement and recognizing a substantial gain

[hearthesilence]

Hasn't Fraser been a bit heavier-set for a while now though? Maybe not to that degree, but I seem to recall seeing him in photos prior to his casting announcement and recognizing a substantial gain

This sounds like an actual Simpsons joke, where it's assumed an actor just gained weight for a role and out of shame he pretends that's the case, but I can't remember which episode.

[deathbird]

I didn't even know the human body could exceed 500, let alone 600, pounds. So, I got that out of this movie already.

You must not be old enough to remember all the great pics in the Guinness Book of World Records in the 1970s:



It was glorious time to be alive