![]() Still, Charlie has more than that on his mind, reaching out to the now-high-school-age daughter ( “Stranger Things’” Sadie Sink), who he abandoned when she was child, clearly eager to make peace with the girl before it’s too late. “I don’t go to hospitals,” Charlie tells him, which brings to mind the movie “Leaving Las Vegas,” in the sense that the central character hopelessly states at the outset that he has no intention of seeking to confront or address the condition that’s gradually killing him. Teaching college literary courses online but hiding his appearance from his bored-looking students, Charlie has his hermit life interrupted by a missionary (Ty Simpkins), who happens to knock on his door at an indelicate moment, as Charlie is experiencing one of several dangerous episodes. Unable to venture outside, he relies on food deliveries and a caring nurse (Hong Chau, clearing a low bar as the most appealing co-star) – who amusingly chides him for constantly apologizing to her – as his only lifelines to the outside world. Here, the focus is on Fraser’s Charlie, who is so large (the 600-pound figure discussed in press materials is never mentioned) that he wheezes and struggles to catch his breath and can only shuffle about using a walker. In a sense, the focus on a sad, lonely and self-destructive man has a good deal in common with director Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 movie “The Wrestler,” which also forced the main character to confront his own mortality. ![]() Weighted down not by its morbidly obese protagonist but rather its stick-thin supporting players, Fraser deserves praise for his buried-under-makeup performance, but that’s not enough to keep the movie afloat. The love showered on Brendan Fraser out of film festivals inflates expectations for “The Whale” wildly out of proportion, in a movie based on a play that occurs almost entirely within a lone apartment.
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