Here's what we know about Bennett Miller: the man can tell one Hell of a story. This is the same guy who made baseball number-crunching interesting in Moneyball. He's the same guy who took Philip Seymour Hoffman to a Best Actor win in the chilly but engrossing drama, Capote. With his latest film, Foxcatcher, Miller efficiently recounts one of the oddest chapters in Olympic history; a story that involves amateur wrestling, psychotic breaks, and an almost Shakespearean level of familial discontent. It's a film awash in doom and gloom, and Miller is only all too happy to make you feel as depressed about what you know is coming as possible.
There's such a thing as being too good at one's job. The story of eccentric
billionaire Jon Du Pont (Steve Carell) and the Schultz Brothers (Mark Ruffalo
and Channing Tatum) is not one that ends on a bright note, and Miller, working
from a somber script by Dan Futterman and E. Max Frye, makes sure you
experience every gloomy note of it. Even the performances, which have been
showered with acclaim since the film was supposed to be released LAST year, are
kind of a drag. For all of the numerous themes Foxcatcher touches
upon, and they are many, we're kept at such a distance from the characters that
we might as well look up the story on Wikipedia.
Carell, hiding under a prosthetic nose that Nicole Kidman in The Hours
would be jealous of, transforms into du Pont, a total nutcase billionaire with
a fanatical passion for wrestling. He's turned his sprawling estate into an
Olympic-level training facility, much to the chagrin of his mother (Vanessa
Redgrave), and hopes to make a statement to the world by building the best team
of wrestlers ever for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. To do it, he first reaches out
to champion wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum), who has been living in the shadow of
his older brother Dave (Ruffalo) for his entire career. Du Pont understands
this intimately; one look at his home shows the rich family heritage that looms
over him at all times, not to mention the constant disapproval of his mother.
So he knows exactly what to say to convince Mark, who doesn't seem like the
brightest bulb in the world anyway, using a grandiose speech appealing to his
sense of patriotism. What's hard to figure, at least right away, is what du
Pont is getting out of all this. We recognize that he's a wacko, but just how
far does his mental illness go? Is he dangerous? Is he in enough control of his
faculties to use someone like Mark for his own personal gain?
The short answers to all of those questions is "extremely wacko",
"yes", and "oh Hell yes". While Mark is initially very
happy to be forging his own path separate from Dave, it isn't long before du
Pont's dismissive attitude and constant demeaning are too much to stand. When
Dave finally puts aside his concerns and joins the team, the personality
clashes between the three men only cause more problems, leading to a heinous act
of violence. Miller unfolds this foreboding mystery in deliberate but detached
fashion, often struggling to maintain our attention from scene to scene. That's
not to say there aren't great individual moments, but they're largely from the
nuanced performances of the three leads. All mocking of his fake nose aside,
it's hard to believe that's actually Carell because he practically transforms
into du Pont on every level. Du Pont is a zealot, a man of incredible wealth
and privilege who hasn't accomplished a darn thing with it. To change that
he'll invest everything and destroy anyone. Tatum is all physicality and pent
up aggression as Mark, while Ruffalo is the most mentally-balanced of the three
as Dave, although he's not without a few flaws. Each actor throws everything
they have into their performances, and as the narrative shifts focus everyone
gets their time in the spotlight.
Along with great work from the cast, cinematographer Greig Fraser does a top
notch job capturing the pristine sprawl of the du Pont estate, contrasted with
the humble Schultz wrestling gym and living quarters. But where is the energy?
There's no life to this wacky story, and worse there doesn't seem to be much of
a point. When the inevitable happens, in one awful act of violence...that's it.
No coda to speak of, no point to be made, nothing. I'd call the finale
"strangely detached' if the rest of the film hadn't already been so. The
thing is, cold and impersonal is probably just what Miller wanted Foxcatcher
to be.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
