Foxcatcher
I have to admit that I’ve never thought all that much of Steve Carell as a comedian, but as an actor who acts in comedies. He wasn’t really that funny in The Office but was mainly clueless as to just how inept he was as an office manager. His current role, that of real life character John Du Pont in Foxcatcher is really a break from Michael Scott, the clueless bumbler. DuPont is a strange, psychologically dubious guy who happens to be an heir to a huge fortune. He’s too old to be in the middle of an adolescent rebellion, but he is still rebelling against his mother. His ancient mother, a crusty, patrician, old money, upper crust matron is a horse lover and thinks that her son’s “passion”, Olympic style wrestling is, for the “lower types”. John, however, wants to buy a wrestling team, and achieve a Reagan-era victory for America in the Olympics. Into this mix comes Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), the previous gold medalist, who is recruited for a wrestling team at Foxcatcher, DuPont’s newly built athletic facility. Schultz is a mono-syllabic guy living a modest, quiet life, being coached by his older brother David (Mark Ruffalo).
Once Mark heads off to DuPont’s facility, things start to turn bad. Schultz had lived a clean life, mainly training for wrestling with his brother’s guidance, but when he comes to Foxcatcher, he is exposed to independence,fame, celebrity, alcohol and cocaine. He misses the structure provided by his brother and isn’t as much of a wrestling success as expected. We also begin to realize just how weird DuPont is. Increasingly paranoid and detached from reality, convinced by his sycophant handlers that he can be not only a wrestler himself, but a coach of wrestlers. Lacking any real coaching or wrestling talent, DuPont recruits Mark’s coach/brother David to train the team, but resents David’s coaching talent. David transplants his family to the training facility after being “bought” by DuPont. All this seems to point to something awful happening, and that expectation looms over the whole movie.
This is a slow movie, with thin dialog and a very deliberate pace and a prevailing sense of building tension. As a wrestling movie, it also has a lot of muscular, sweaty male bodies. Mark (Channing) is nearly speechless in much of the movie, does a lot of his acting with body language and really manages to express a lot going on without much said. DuPont’s strangely paced vocalisms (and Carell’s prosthetic nose and liver spots) make DuPont seem more menacing and weird as the movie goes on. I was seriously impressed by Carell’s creation of the character, and also found Channing to seem like much more of an actor than I had taken him for. Mark Ruffalo was also excellent as David Schultz, the older brother, a likable and sane family guy who chooses to join this sinking ship and finds himself in way over his head.
This movie has been highly praised, with a lot of the predictable “Oscar Buzz” surrounding Steve Carell’s performance and the December release date. I thought it to be excellent. The cinematography is very close-up, with minimal FX and a documentary feel. On the other hand, it’s not really a popcorn movie, the action and plot development are slow and the climax is excruciating. It’s not a fun movie, but it is excellently done and well worth seeing. Don’t miss it.
