The Whale

Ultimately, it alludes to things without adding up to much of anything. Still, the performances are all excellent, and Fraser is especially compelling, bringing a sincerity to Charlie, and an openness and gentleness.

The film needs empathy for Charlie to have a genuine reason for being. But Aronofsky sees his characters the way certain children look at spiders. Which leg first?

Deals in the worst, most jaded conventions of bourgeois middlebrow dinner theatre from the 1950s ... Not even someone so warm as Fraser can win us over to the most jaw-droppingly daft final shot in recent cinema.

The Whale is best appreciated as a moving, stripped-back character study, with a stunning lead performance.

Brendan Fraser, cherished for his earlier roles as an endearing naïve, performs miracles in making Charlie likeable... Enduring such an awful play is a high price to pay to see some acting, though.

It's an amazing film.

If ever a performance saved a movie, it’s Brendan Fraser in The Whale. The voyeuristic elements of the film are outshone by the humanity that radiates from its star and supporting cast, making for a flawed film that nonetheless pulls at the heartstrings.

The Whale tackles a clutch of tough topics – obesity&#59; isolation&#59; body shaming&#59; betrayal&#59; forgiveness – with sensitivity and a raw honesty that can sometimes be hard to take...a pungent performance-based arthouse film made for adults.

Brendan Fraser stretches every limit in director Darren Aronofsky’s painful exploration of physical entrapment.

A drippy, big-screen soap opera.