The Whale (2022) review

Extremely hefty English professor Charlie (Brendan Fraser) - who teaches online classes (but keeps his webcam turned off) - is told by his friend Liz (Hong Chau) to go to the hospital (because he has congestive heart failure) but refuses ... and gets visited by missionary Thomas (Ty Simpkins) and his estranged seventeen-year-old daughter Ellie (Sadie Sink), who hates him for abandoning her and her mother Mary (Samantha Morton) for a man.  For Fraser, it's the kind of grandiose (in every sense of the word) role that's rightfully earned him numerous awards, but the setup itself - adapted by Samuel D. Hunter from his own play - feels plopped out of an MFA workshop and it tries to be so serious it's sometimes unintentionally funny: violins swirl when he's stuffing chocolate and pizza into his mouth and the same exact points get hammered at repeatedly, begging desperately for audience sympathy (as if seeing an obese person choking on fried chicken or struggling to stand up isn't enough already).  While I don't think the intent was to be offensive to anyone struggling with weight issues, it steers just a little too close to the Mr. Creosote sketch from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life....