Director: Bennett Miller.
Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave.
Running Time: 135 Minutes
Synopsis: A riveting, tense and unsettling exploration of the power of money and obsession from the acclaimed director of Capote and Moneyball.
FOXCATCHER is pretty good. Oddly, that’s all. It’s just sort of there, like a lifeless planet being orbited by the dazzling satellites of Carell, Tatum and Ruffalo. They shine down upon a rock on which little else happens.
Here is the true life story of one of America’s wealthiest men and self-styled patriot, John du Pont (Carell) who takes Olympic wrestling gold medalist Mark Schultz (Tatum) under his wing to lead a team of wrestlers to further glory and national pride. Schultz’s growing intensity, the arrival of his brother and trainer Dave (Ruffalo) and du Pont’s increasingly erratic behaviour cause their world to unravel with tragic results. Sort of. The thing is, nothing really happens. For a sports movie, it is surprisingly inert; bereft of excitement and tension. For a character study, it’s rather superficial, with director Bennett Miller barely getting beneath their skin, a far cry from what he managed with CAPOTE, and hardly scratching the surface of the lead trios motivations. Mark wants to be the best wrestler in the world and step out of his older brother’s shadow. Dave wants to train his compatriots and enjoy life with his family. Du Pont wants to impress his ageing mother (Vanessa Redgrave in a pretty thankless role, for this is a film about manly men) while ploughing his own furrow; his love of wrestling and his country. Those things occur, there is a lot of mumbling (we enter the realms of mumble-porn quite frequently), the finale happens, and then it finishes with an over-riding sense of ‘Huh. Alright then.’
Carrell inhabits the role (and spectacular nose) of du Pont brilliantly, his performance receiving praise from all over the shop, and rightfully so. However, a shop owner can be the best in the world, but if his store has not much else to offer, then I’ll buy my stuff elsewhere. Ruffalo, too, is great with what he has, but that consists mainly of smiling at his brother, grappling and stroking his beard (also his hairline is fairly distracting). He is the emotional centre of the film, practically the mcguffin in fact, but doesn’t seem to have anywhere to go. Tatum continues his accent into becoming a proper thespian and he exudes a brooding intensity here. Pro wrestling fans will notice some striking similarities between Tatum’s performance of Mark Schultz and another real life wrestler, Kurt Angle. It’s quite uncanny. Tatum and Ruffalo portray the physicality and mentality of the sport with conviction and expertise, so much so that WWE owner Vince McMahon will no doubt be offering them contracts. That may sound unlikely, but after THE WRESTLER came out, Mickey Rourke appeared on the following WrestleMania, and promptly cost himself an Oscar.
FOXCATCHER is not bad by any means, but it is far from great. It will hold your attention while doing nothing with it. And then it just ends.
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