Darren Aronofsky’s newest film, The Whale, had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. We finally have the first reactions from the lucky festival attendees on the ground in Venice! Below are rounded up initial responses to the newest film starring Brendan Fraser, Samantha Morton, Hong Chau and Sadie Sink.
Darren Aronofskys's The Whale had me blubbering. It's a deeply moving chamber piece with a career-best outing from Brandan Fraser. This is his Leaving Las Vegas – a total go-for-broke performance of self-destruction & sorrow that's GUARANTEED to land him an Oscar Nom. #Venezia79 pic.twitter.com/ituABC3tfX
— Luke Hearfield (@LukeHearfield) September 4, 2022
Darren Aronofsky's #TheWhale absolutely BROKE me!
— Ren Geekness (@RenGeekness) September 4, 2022
A stripped back portrait of hopelessness, grief & redemption bursting at the seams with earnest emotion where a devastatingly vulnerable Brendan Fraser delivers a career-defining performance!
It will have you weeping#Venezia79 pic.twitter.com/k9gIitwUqj
#Venezia79 #TheWhale is heartbreaking. The explosion of the self into a chamber drama in the end of times on the impossibility of salvation. Fraser gives it all like an ultimate hero, killer turns by Chau and Morton too. And Sadie Sink… WOW you'll see. She's a tornado in this!
— Lorenzo Ciorcalo (@rotovisor) September 3, 2022
THE WHALE. People are not ready for Brendan Fraser's beautifully heartbreaking and heartfelt return to the silver screen. Aronofsky, you outdid yourself! Now on to wipe away the tears with everyone else who attended the screening. #Venice79 pic.twitter.com/JjN0cAoHu6
— Nicolò Grasso #Berlinale74 (@nickygra97) September 3, 2022
Dear god. What to make of Aronofsky’s THE WHALE at #Venezia79? Brendan Fraser strong as a 42-stone depressive desperate to reconnect with family. But the screenplay — from some play or other — is sentimental, trite and occasionally embarrassing. Ending gives bathos a bad name, pic.twitter.com/HxR2YHtjqJ
— 🥃Donald Clarke📽️ (@DonaldClarke63) September 4, 2022
THE WHALE: "Although it’s a sometimes rocky path getting there, the grim eloquence of The Whale evens out all of the competing colors in its messy room, generating the feeling of the oft-mentioned Whitman, “the song of me rising from the bed and https://t.co/sduWb4SILo pic.twitter.com/hFwOCWGqxt
— IONCINEMA (@ioncinema) September 4, 2022
To my surprise, I really liked The Whale!! After hating Mother! Who would have thought! https://t.co/MOsZhPjP2H
— hannah strong (@thethirdhan) September 4, 2022






Leave a comment