Foxcatcher, directed by Bennett Miller
(R, 134 minutes)
Foxcatcher is the story of an ugly little man-child of privilege whose only talent was for buying things and people. John Eleuthere du Pont (played by Steve Carell through a prosthetic nose) was the sort of unfortunate fatherless boy who found it impossible to make friends. But he was also a du Pont, an heir to an enormous fortune, and so his mother (Vanessa Redgrave) bought him one.
Du Pont is impossibly sad, so self-unaware that he insists on calling himself the “Golden Eagle of America.” He gives away a lot of money, but there are always strings attached. He funds local police SWAT teams, so they let him ride around with them, carrying a gun and badge. And because amateur sports always need sponsors, USA Wrestling allows him to name himself head coach and emblazon his name on Olympic uniforms.
While Carell disappears into his role, the real protagonist of Foxcatcher is Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), an Olympic champion wrestler who comes to live with du Pont on his sprawling Pennsylvania estate to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Tatum is mesmerizing as petulant and sorrowful Mark, inarticulate and wounded and seemingly unconvinced of the authenticity of his accomplishment. Despite the gold medal he brought home from the ’84 summer games
— which rewards him with the opportunity to talk to school assemblies and subsist on fast food and ramen noodles — Mark is perpetually in the shadow of his older brother, fellow gold-medal wrestler Dave (Mark Ruffalo), who is by far the more confident and rooted adult.
While the brothers train together and seem close, Dave has established himself in suburbia with wife Nancy (Sienna Miller) and family and even the moral wherewithal to resist, at least for a while, du Pont’s attempts to lure him to join Team Foxcatcher.
Hungry for validation and eager to escape his brother’s shadow, Mark is initially taken in by du Pont’s pompous appeals to his patriotism and apparent generosity (with drugs as well as money), though he sulks when he begins to suspect that the millionaire is only using him to try to lure his brother into his fold.
While the film does not go deeply into du Pont’s athletic history — he attempted but failed to qualify for the 1968 team as a modern pentathlete — there’s little doubt that he’s attempting to vicariously experience the thrill of victory. So an invented scene, in which du Pont wins an obviously rigged senior wrestling tournament, seems like overkill.
But for the most part, the movie is a slow-burning model of restraint. The feeling that builds throughout is less suspense than dread, an awful foreboding that a lot of people are going to find unpleasant. How you receive the film depends largely on your tolerance for heartbreak. No one escapes intact.
Blu-ray and DVD bonus features include deleted scenes and a making-of featurette.
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