La ballena (The Whale)

Una mezcla equilibrada de psicología íntima y sentimiento conmovedor. Intrigante, sobre todo, con el personaje principal que el cine nunca ha experimentado, cuya apariencia es impactante y cuyo interior disfrutamos estudiando. El excelente Brendan Fraser con un maquillaje increíble, acompañado de Sadie Sink que interpreta perfectamente a su hija. De su encuentro emanan emociones no expresadas, ira por el dolor por un lado y arrepentimiento por el otro. Sí, el personaje de Fraser es demasiado autocompasivo, y su descubrimiento de la importancia de la honestidad en la vida es ridículo, pero aun así, La ballena (The Whale) sigue siendo una película agradable y sensible, que no carece de la contribución artística del autor. (04.03.2023)

En términos de sentimentalismo y lloriqueo, Darren Aronofsky lo lleva aquí a extremos absurdos, y aunque no siento que se deslice nunca hacia el terreno del chantaje emocional, imagino que muchos espectadores tendrán un gran problema con esto. Yo lo superé, sobre todo gracias a la actuación casi hipnótica del protagonista. Bueno, si hay algo en esta película por lo que realmente debe ser destacada y recordada, es por Brendan Fraser. Este actor se entregó más del cien por cien a su trabajo aquí y en su interpretación se basa toda la película. También me agradó ver que Aronofsky apostó por un tema más civil, íntimo y directo y no fue tan pretencioso como suele ser. Podría haber reducido un poco el lagrimeo, pero para mí es sin duda un morboso y gordo pulgar hacia arriba. [Vancouver International Film Festival 2022] (05.10.2022)

In my opinion, The Whale is Aronofsky's second best film, after The Fountain. It isn’t nasty like Requiem for a Dream, nor is it bloated like Black Swan or weepy and formulaic like Wrestler (although it has a lot in common with the latter), but this time it just worked. Although the story doesn't really surprise with anything, it's so well written (you can see the theatrical backbone), acted (Brendan Fraser is brilliant, I'm rooting for him) and filmed (we practically don't leave the apartment, but it doesn't matter) that my cautious curiosity turned into enthusiasm pretty quickly. But I must also praise Sadie Sink and Hong Chau, without whom Charlie would not be Charlie, and I must not forget Simonsen's music. I was originally going to give it four stars, but after a couple of days my reservations melted away under the weight (ahem) of all the unexpectedly positive things the film brought. (04.03.2023)

If this were a raw last confession of a lost human soul without any pretensions and all sorts of gimmicks, it would be an absolute blast. The Whale shouldn't have been made by the master of allegories, Aronofsky, who combines uncompromising depression with religious motifs, art literature, and strange human creatures that might not be there at all – I was just waiting for parallel universes and other dimensions to appear. Two stars for the phenomenal Brendan Fraser and the moments when the film is exactly the coherent genre composition it should be for the entire runtime and not just a few fragments. (27.02.2023)

An acting masterclass combined with a masterclass in unnecessary directorial manipulation. If Darren had reined in his desire to drag the viewer into a fit of transcendent emotion and had carried the film through to the end as an intimate story about a human mass of guilt and loneliness, it might have had the punch that he last achieved in The Wrestler. Unfortunately, however, this is how the redemption of a self-destructive man becomes more distant the more the director tries to make it poignant. Fraser, on the other hand, deserves maximum respect, as he account for all of the humor and humanism in this dubious dramatic cetacean. (30.12.2022)