Uh-oh. Even an on-form Brendan Fraser can’t redeem this stagey melodrama, which gorges on cliches and the state-of-the-art ‘fat suit’ Fraser wears throughout. His performance as Charlie, a gay, morbidly obese professor with a Christ-complex, won the 53-year-old actor a six-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival and is virtually guaranteed a Best Actor nomination at the 2023 Oscar. Academy Voters love a bit of latex and Fraser’s a real-life underdog. What a shame the film stinks to high heaven.
The film – dedicated to director Darren Aronofsky’s parents, Abe and Charlotte (who used to be teachers) – is undeniably liberal in its agenda. It’s anti-homophobia. It’s anti-fat shaming. The director’s heart is in the right place. It’s where he puts the camera that’s the problem. Let’s put aside the question of whether a genuinely obese actor should have been cast in the lead. The real sin is that Aronofsky only has eyes for Charlie’s flesh and completely fails to notice that Charlie, like all the characters in this movie, is paper thin.
