Foxcatcher

Year: 2014
Genre: Biography drama
Director: Bennett Miller


Plot: Based on the true story of Mark and Dave Schultz, a pair of wrestling brothers and their association with millionaire wrestling enthusiast John du Pont, which ends in tragedy.


The gist: Foxcatcher is named after the farm where John du Pont lives. He is a millionaire who considers himself a patriot, and wants to make America glorious again.

To that end, he invites Olympic wrestling gold medallist Mark Schultz to his estate and pledges to provide him with everything he needs to win the World Championship and the next Olympics in Seoul. Eventually John manages to persuade Mark's brother Dave, also an Olympic gold medallist in wrestling, to join Team Foxcatcher. However, John's continuously bizarre behavior threatens their relationship.

Director Bennett Miller ought to be commended for attempting to translate a fascinating yet tragic story for the big screen, even though the results are mixed at best.


The good: Steve Carell, who earned an Oscar nomination for playing John du Pont is pretty awesome here. It's not just the prosthetic nose and makeup that makes him seem disarming, but Carell's mannerisms and speech pattern as well. Channing Tatum is better than he's ever been as the intense Mark Schultz. Hopefully he takes more roles like these in the future. Mark Ruffalo is also solid as Dave Schultz, the quiet and sensible one among the trio. Some scenes turn out pretty tense and Miller deserves credit for that.

The bad: Miller chose to rely on the actors' reactions and quiet moments to tell the story, but it doesn't always work. There are too many instances where scenes are drawn out unnecessarily, or Miller kills the sound and replaces it with a score. Even the wrestling matches get this treatment, which negates the intensity of the fight. This film unfortunately focuses more on the three men and the tragedy at the end, and less on the wrestling. I would have preferred a balance of the two. Plus the editing could have been tighter.


Verdict: Watch this for Carell, Tatum and Ruffalo at their best. But overall the film isn't as tight and intense as it could have been, making it a hard film to digest. (6/10)