Brendan Fraser is Morbidly Obese in New Trailer for The Whale

Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale had debuted a few months back at the Venice International Film Festival, and there was a lot of praise online for the portrayal of Brandan Fraser as a morbidly obese recluse. Now the film is set to hit theaters, and we have our first trailer featuring Fraser, Hong Chau, and Sadie Sink.

Watch this:

An obese and reclusive English teacher tries to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter for one last chance at redemption.

The movie is actually based on a play written by Samuel D. Hunter—who had also provided the screenplay for the film. Oddly enough, the previews for the play online kind of portray the film as a pseudo-comedy, but I guess they’re going the full dramatic direction with Aronofsky in the helm—I mean, if it’s not an exercise in human misery, can we even call it an Aronofsky movie?

Though Fraser was one of the biggest movie stars in the early 2000s, he has since kind of been lost in obscurity, and The Whale is considered to be his huge comeback. With a lot of positive buzz surrounding the film at the Venice International Film Festival though, I’m eager to watch him take on a dramatic role that doesn’t really require him to jump around and run from explosions.

Hopefully we get a more extensive trailer soon—probably sometime around the end of the month.

The Whale is set to come to theaters on Dec. 9.