Foxcatcher has been receiving a lot of praise in the last few months with emphasis being put on its performances and subtle, bleak style. Honestly, I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this film. I knew it wasn’t going to be a typical sports movie with a good backbone and heartwarming message but I also wasn’t expecting it to be quite as stark and skeletal as it actually is. This is a film that is truly carried by its performances (which are magnificent) and covers its (true) subject matter with such delicate touch that I was often wondering exactly what was going on or why characters were acting why they were. Foxcatcher is admittedly a well made and extremely well acted film, but I found the entire experience to be somewhat hollow and cold in a way that didn’t completely work for me.
When it comes to the story Foxcatcher tells, the best thing I can say about it is that it made me want to research the real life events that are portrayed. Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz (who appears to be struggling to find consistent success since is gold metal victory) is approached by multimillionaire John du Pont who wants him on his private wrestling team with dreams of winning big at the next Olympics. Eventually Mark’s brother, Dave Schultz (who is also a very successful Olympic wrestler) gets involved and the trio begin training for the games together. The crux of this entire story is the relationship between Mark and John du Pont. It becomes clear that John du Pont is not a fully stable individual and has quite a few issues with his relationship with his mother and may actually only be in this situation for his own benefit. I found the story and how it plays out to be interesting but I was rarely intimately invested in any of it. When it was over I do think it left a deep impression but I think I spent more time reading about these real life people afterwards than I did watching the movie since the movie doesn’t try very hard to be explicit… at all.
Not a whole lot really happens in this movie and every scene, big and small, seem to be truncated or relies fully on the creepy score and extremely haunting performances. As a final note on the story itself, I don’t think a lot of people are going to be taken with Foxcatcher. It’s a very slow, atmospheric movie that attempts to be just as bleak as the real life situation. While I think Foxcatcher succeeds into portraying the solemness of the characters and generally down-beat resolution of everything, it didn’t really capture my attention as fully as I was hoping it would. Luckily this movie has quite a bit going for it outside of its story that made it worth watching for me.
Let’s talk about these performances. If there was any doubt that Channing Tatum didn’t have it in him to be a great actor, it’s completely gone now. His portrayal of Mark is confident and yet captures the cautious optimism of the man perfectly. Even his mannerisms are fully realized to the point of complete immersion in the character. Mark Ruffalo plays Dave Schultz and once again delivers a great performance to add to his already impressive career. He doesn’t get quite as much screen time as the other characters but he goes beyond simply looking the part and completely soaks in the character and brings him to life. But the real revelation here is, of course, Steve Carrell as John du Pont. This performance is incredible. He’s awkward, creepy and sly in every single frame and I honestly forgot it was Steve Carrell after about 10 minutes of him being on screen. John du Pont speaks in an eerie whisper and always looks like he’s got something else on his mind. Carrell easily gives the best performance of his career in this film and one that I think is worthy of many accolades. This trio of performances dominates probably 80% of the movie and really carry the entire thing. Without these performances and sharp visual style of the film, Foxcatcher would have been a lot harder to get through.
Foxcatcher is definitely an odd film. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed by the time it ended, though. The thematic material in Foxcatcher, which covers things such as greed, extreme introversion and desire to succeed (among other things), is fantastic and this is the right story to get the point across… however the movie is so drab and subtle that I found a lot of what was going on to be quite lifeless. Foxcatcher is beautifully shot and features an immensely effective score but what really excels this film are the performances from the three leads. Carrell is especially outstanding and gives one of the best performances I’ve seen all year. It’s hard for me to recommend this to people just because I have a sneaking suspicion that many people will find it very dull. At the same time, it is a fascinating story with a lot of different theories and ideas about why things played out the way they did. Maybe the ambiguity about John du Pont’s motivations in real life is what inspired Foxcatcher to be so stark and open-ended.
7/10
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