Review of Foxcatcher (2014) by Dave J — 25 Apr 2015

This is an odd case in which I think a film actually adds up to less than the sum of its parts. There's a lot of individual elements to this film that work well, and it's clearly the work of serious, ambitious filmmakers; and yet, the whole thing ends up feeling weirdly incomplete and inconsequential.

The story, which is based on true events, follows an Olympic wrestler (Channing Tatum) who is hired to be the protege of John Du Pont (Steve Carell), an eccentric, creepy billionaire. I don't want to spoil what happens, but it's enough to say that their relationship gets weird and sour over time, especially when the wrestler's brother (Mark Ruffalo), an even more well-respected Olympic wrestler, enters the picture.

This movie got a lot of attention for its performances, and they are indeed very good: Ruffalo thoroughly embodies his character both emotionally and physically, and Tatum is quite convincing throughout his character's evolution.

Carell is unrecognizable and creepy as Du Pont, but the film never seems to delve fully enough into what makes that character tick. Indeed, the problem with Carell's character points to the problem of the whole movie: although we see certain things happen, we're never really sure why they happen.

The characters' motivations remain pretty much shrouded in mystery, and in this case, I think that's a bad thing. The movie seems to fail in its self-ordained mission. We know the story of what happened, but we don't really understand why it happened.

The film's visual style - muted gray colors, long takes, characters filmed in long shots, etc. - constantly conveys a mood of utter seriousness, which is probably why the film got an Oscar nomination for best director; but the film's fundamental failure to actually explain anything explains why it didn't also get a Best Picture nomination.