Review of Foxcatcher (2014) by Adlai N — 31 May 2015

Every so often I see a film that doesn't really resonate with me as much as I thought. I understand what I am seeing but it just leaves me somewhat blank and empty. While watching Foxcatcher, I never really gained an appreciation for what it was trying to say. It was often too cold and sterile that never grabbed me and demanded my attention. That of course doesn't diminish the acting from Carell, Ruffalo and Tatum who were all excellent. But there wasn't much else to consider this a great film.

Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is a loner who doesn't have much going for him at the moment, except for the gold medal he won in the 1984 Olympics for wrestling which he finds much pride in. he lives in the shadow of his equally talented brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) who also won a gold medal in the Olympics in 1984 and is also infinitely more popular and happy with a wife and two children. Mark pines to be the best at what he does and won't stop until he attains it to become his own man. He gets that opportunity when an equally lonely eccentric millionaire John Eleuthère du Pont (Steve Carell) and heir to the storied Du Pont family fortune that made its way by manufacturing gun powder in the 1800's meets with Mark. John enlists Mark to head his own wrestling team on his training facility and bring America back to prominence on the way to the 1988 Olympics. but the relationship becomes strained when Dave gets involved and threatens the once fruitful friendship that eventually ends tragically.

I wanted to like Foxcatcher and am always willing to give any film a chance. But it just didn't sit well with me or cause me to become entrenched with its story. I enjoyed the acting from everyone but it was simply not enough to get me more emotionally involved. Carell was downright ghastly as Du Pont and really transformed himself into him, mainly with the help of a bird like nose that is always noticeable. You could hardly tell it was him sometimes with his awkward way of speaking and his cold stare that seems to go on for miles. Much like Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote, it was a seamless transition that leaves you stunned at how mesmerizing the performance was. It's one of the more interesting pieces of acting that leaves you wondering why he acts the way he does.

The mystery of his character may have been fleshed out more to make the film more engaging overall, but I think leaving out certain aspects makes his portrayal all the more frightening. You don't know why and you aren't given a reason but one doesn't need to be given all the answers to fully appreciate a weird and interesting character. Carell easily rises up to the challenge in his first serious dramatic role and pulls it off very well. He has a knack for playing odd ball characters from his work on The Office and Anchorman who may or may not have a screw loose and creates something startling and creepy as Du Pont. He makes the role his own and is hard to not look away and peer closer into his warped psyche.

His past was never delved into but you know that he has issues with his mother Jean du Pont (Vanessa Redgrave) who doesn't share his enthusiasm for wrestling and his dream of helping America. He hopes to make his life worthwhile by creating something all his own without the assistance of his mother and show that he matters. There was one great scene where Du Pont is telling a story from his childhood to Mark where he found out that someone who he thought was his friend was being paid to do so by his mother. You can see the pained anguish in his lifeless eyes and the realization that he never really had a friend his whole life. It's also interesting to see how his mother buying his friends is much like how Du Pont buys people. It's pretty sad when he realizes that what his mother thought of him in the past became truth.

Tatum was incredible as the emotionally stunted Mark. Here he is an afterthought three years after he won gold that doesn't look like an Olympic gold medalist and has to resort to talking to an auditorium of bored school children who could care less about his Olympic glory days. He has a great quiet intensity that is about to bubble over and cause havoc. Much like Carell, he has gradually moved on from his comedic sensibilities that made him a star and easily fit the dramatic fare rather well. At any moment, you could see that he will self-destruct and it's great to see Tatum take on a role as powerful as this. He brings a great physicality to Mark Schultz and unbridled power that is often unrestrained and causes him to go off the deep end.

Mark and Du Pont share a similar inclination to be lonely where they eventually lean on one another for friendship and guidance. It eventually becomes a bizarre symbiotic relationship of co dependence and desperation where neither of them wants to be alone. Seeing his mental breakdown after losing a match at the 1988 Olympic Trials was engrossing and wrought with internal suffering, causing him to binge on junk food and smash his head in a mirror. You can't help but be stunned at how monstrous Tatum is. Ruffalo was the most levelheaded of the group and brought a sense of normalcy that has avoided both Du Pont and Mark. He has what they don't, a loving family, respect among his peers and a grounded life while coaching wrestling to prospects. He was the needed wedge between them both that would eventually cause his demise. While Du Pont wants to see him succeed, it never really translates that well emotionally.

Ruffalo brings the needed emotions to understand Mark on his level as no one else really could. You could see the love and anger that fester inside of both of them. One great scene had both of them sparring where it eventually gets heated and Mark causes Dave to bleed but they go on knowing that it wasn't meant with hate or overt malice. Another one was Dave being coached to say how important Du Pont is to his life in a documentary and he stumbles over his words and can't come up with anything nice to say about him. Ruffalo has a very expressive face and he shows his facial expressions brilliantly in this brief scene.

Director Bennett Miller is very talented with a strong directing style but Foxcatcher seems way too mashed together to come out with something useful to say. His past films were more successful and succinct in their portrayal. Capote was a great tale of a man becoming obsessed with a horrific murder and attempting to write a novel about the events. Moneyball was a surprisingly entertaining look on how a baseball manager did the impossible and put together a playoff team with not much money. You could see where those films were going and you get involved with the perilous journeys of Truman Capote and Billy Beane on the way to their individual successes. With Foxcatcher, it just leaves you empty and cold where you don't get much out of it in the end. There are some tense moments and some creepy moments, but there wasn't a scene or sequence that had you going wow.

In Moneyball, the Oakland Athletics were going on an epic win streak. While they were en route to 20 games, they blow a massive lead and are in danger of losing. Up comes a player who hits a homerun and wins the game. It was a thrilling and exciting sequence that had you on the edge of your seat that was directed to perfection. It really took the drama of baseball to another level and revealed what made it so exciting. But so much of Foxcatcher is cut and dry, leaving you with no much before moving on to something else. With Capote, you see Capote lose more and more of himself in trying to uncover the graphic murder of a whole family and getting to know the killers. You see it slowly eating away at him and it made for an enthralling film.

The pacing is also slow where it tended to drag for various scenes making certain moments just out of place and doesn't do enough to build upon the tense moments of the film. You would have never guessed that the film spans nine years and not a few months as it was presented. There is no semblance of time that just makes the experience rather distant. Capote and Moneyball both used a timeline to show the viewer how far the events have gone, but there is no such thing here. There was a feeling of rushed hurriedness that made it odd to watch at times.

It got hard to be as emotionally invested as one would like since it got to be so cold. The script by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman was muted at times that didn't engage me enough and it felt kind of wasted. The political allegories it went through didn't make it any more interesting or captivating and just felt like it was reaching for straws. You could tell that it wants to say something about American capitalism, greed and the risks of success, but it falls under its self-imposed importance and desire to say something meaningful. It just leaves you hollow in the end where you don't really learn much of anything.

There aren't many instances where I don't agree with the majority when it comes to a critically lauded film, but this would be that instance. I had high hopes for it, but it never really translated for me and stuck with me long after the credits rolled like the various other Oscar nominated films from the last year. Its saving grace was the trio of amazing actors who went above and beyond to deliver memorable performances, especially Tatum who is becoming more and more diverse with great range. Not many movies leave me feeling indifferent but Foxcatcher did which is unfortunate as Miller is a great director and I really wanted to like it but it was just too mishandled to make it worthwhile. Three head bashings into a mirror out of five.