Review: Brendan Fraser's portrayal is a tour de force in The Whale

4 stars

If you've been paying attention to movie news in the past few months, you would have heard about the Brendan Fraser resurgence.

The 90s megastar - charismatic lead of films such as The Mummy, George of the Jungle, Bedazzled, Blast from the Past - has been absent from screens for a number of years, but has made a big splash with his dynamite performance in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale.

Fraser's performance - in equal parts heartbreaking and heart-warming - has garnered a lot of attention this awards season, with nominations at all the major awards (including the Oscars), and a win at the Critics Choice Awards.

It is a tour-de-force, and he is reason enough alone to see the film.

Now traditionally, Aronofsky's films have not been the kind of fare that everyone enjoys. He is the type of director who prefers character study to plot, and isn't afraid to leave his audience with lingering feelings of shock and disgust.

While Black Swan and Requiem for a Dream are moving masterpieces, he also gave us Noah and mother! - and there are surely few people out there who count those films as worthy of a second watch.

The story in The Whale is very contained. It is adapted from Samuel D. Hunter's play of the same name, and Hunter wrote the adaptation himself.

It follows Fraser's Charlie, a morbidly obese English professor who never leaves his apartment, and engages with no one but his best friend and nurse, Liz (the also Oscar-nominated Hong Chau).

Charlie is coming to terms with the fact that he might not have long left to live, and reaches out to his estranged daughter Ellie, played by Stranger Things's standout star Sadie Sink. We learn Charlie hasn't seen Ellie since he separated with her mother almost a decade earlier, leaving the family to be with a man who used to be his student.

The film takes place almost entirely inside Charlie's apartment as we watch him struggle with the health issues that plague him, the lax attitudes to critical analysis of his online students, and mending his relationship with his daughter.

Meanwhile, an enthusiastic young man doing missionary work for a local church group keeps returning to Charlie's flat day after day, believing Charlie is the divine reason he was brought to the town.

As with many films adapted from plays, so much of the action and story propulsion takes place via the dialogue, the conversations between the characters.

There's a real sense that Charlie is running out of time to say and do all the things that need to be said and done. No one would blame him if he became bitter and angry, lashing out at those around him. But he stays positive throughout, a gentle, introspective soul who genuinely wants other people to celebrate and love themselves as he sees them.

Fraser's work is exemplary. Covered in prosthetics to give him - already a very tall man - the realistic body of a man with his condition, Fraser still manages to convey so much emotion. His desperation to connect with his daughter is incredibly moving.

Chau is similarly excellent as Liz. She is loving and fiercely loyal, and is devastated to be soon losing her friend. Chau has delivered many searing performances in recent years (The Menu, Watchmen - even her episode of the new Poker Face) and it's great to see this work finally rewarded with an Oscar nomination.

Sadie Sink and Samantha Morton, in a small role as Ellie's mother, are also brilliant.

If you don't mind your movies a little slow, introspective and driven by character, then The Whale is not to be missed.