“Everyone remembers Brendan Fraser from The Mummy,” Mr. Gray says as he watches the 55-year-old American actor accept his Oscar for “The Whale” Aronofsky. “But who remembers him in this incredible Gods and Demons movie by Bill Condon?”

The year is 1998. Frazier, who is in his thirties, a year before he made The Mummy, plays Clayton, a slightly emaciated body who served in the Marine Corps (the film is set in 1957).

Clayton lives in a trailer, knows nothing, works and has casual sex with women behind bars. An astronomical distance separates him from the obese, cultured homosexual Charlie in The Whale.

Clayton is played by the old English director James Weil (a real person), the creator of the legendary “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein”. Whale (played by the astonishing Ian McKellen) lives alone in a pool villa in Los Angeles, his eyes fixed on the past, on the First World War, on the naked youths diving into his pool, on the set with Boris. Karloff fantasizes about suicide and draws.

Who remembers Brendan Fraser in the incredible movie Gods and Demons?

The only image from the future is Clayton, his new gardener. Whale convinces Clayton to pose for him, but the latter reacts violently to stories of his homosexual experiences. However, it comes back to him.

The dramatic climax comes when Vail convinces Clayton to pose naked while wearing a World War I gas mask. The howl, flaring up again, rushes at Clayton. They fight hand-to-hand, and Veil relives the trench warfare again. But that night, a catharsis sets in for both of them: Clayton puts the exhausted Whale to sleep. Unbeknownst to him, she leads him to the grave, gently, protecting. The next day, Wale is found drowned in his lovers’ pool, leaving a suicide note.

Mr. Gray remembers the film’s excellent soundtrack, written by Carter Burnwell, and its final scene: ten years after the events, Clayton, now married with a son, is watching Frankenstein together on TV. Then throwing out the garbage alone, Clayton stumbles like Boris Karloff in Frankenstein.

The astronomical distances separating Frasier from “Gods and Demons” from Frasier from “The Whale” disappear here: the repulsive, benevolent, but dark, desperate, ugly monster is looking for a friend again.