‘Foxcatcher’ wrestles with a millionaire’s ugly past
By Lawrence Toppman
Posted: Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014
COLUMNISTS »
Lawrence Toppman
Lawrence Toppman is a theater critic and culture writer with The Charlotte Observer.
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Bennett Miller has directed three feature films in his brief but illustrious career, all about real people in similar circumstances: An intellectual misfit inserts himself into a society where he’s unwelcome, and his awkward efforts to fit in lead to havoc.
The results were eerily touching in “Capote” and comic in “Moneyball,” but they’re tragic in “Foxcatcher.” (If you don’t know why, this review won’t tell you.) The picture has ice at its heart – you won’t want to hug or root for anyone, except perhaps one supporting character – but it’s disturbingly intelligent.
The oddball in this case is John du Pont, scion of one of America’s richest families. (The title comes from the name of his estate, Foxcatcher Farms, and from his blueblooded clan’s penchant for hunting.)
He invested hugely in the U.S. national wrestling team, building a training facility to prepare it for the 1988 Olympics; in return, he was named coach of that team, though he knew little about the sport.
The movie divides its attention among du Pont (Steve Carell, outfitted with an enormous false nose) and wrestling brothers he thought would be the cornerstones of his squad: Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), who had both won gold at the 1984 Olympics.
Mark, a slow-witted loner in this version, moves to du Pont’s farm and buys into his vision. Dave, a settled family guy with no ambitions to leave his college coaching job, resists du Pont but eventually succumbs to a generous offer.
Writers E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman don’t give backstories for characters. We know nothing about the Schultzes’ lives to this point, except that Dave feels protective toward his younger sibling, and Mark doesn’t want to live in Dave’s shadow. We see du Pont briefly through the eyes of his contemptuous mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and hear quiet heartbreak in his voice when he tells a story about his youth: He had one friend growing up, the son of the family chauffeur, until he learned his mother had been paying the kid to hang around him.
So we watch the unsettling dynamics of this triangle play out against the snowy landscape of southeastern Pennsylvania, knowing something bizarre will eventually occur but not able to anticipate how or why.
Ultimately, we feel like we’re watching rats in a posh, complicated maze.
Carell’s acting has been rightly praised, though it consists mostly of staring at people with an unfathomable, piercing gaze; Miller aims for maximum creepiness, and Carell delivers it. Ruffalo remains warm-hearted in his small role, and Tatum makes the mumbling, stolid Mark Schultz into a sympathetic person.
The wrestling scenes are well-rehearsed and well-executed; though Tatum has a wrestler’s build and Ruffalo does not, both have learned their moves well.
But the script exaggerates almost everything for effect, from a wrestler’s need to lose weight in two hours before a bout (nobody drops 11 pounds that fast) to the size of du Pont’s honker: It’s so big Carell tips his head back to balance it, like a wary toucan.
The real multimillonaire had a doctorate in natural science from Villanova University and had wrestled in high school, though briefly; the one in the film seems like a self-declared expert on birds and wouldn’t know an arm drag from a drag queen.
I suspect Miller worried we might empathize with du Pont if he didn’t seem like a complete crackpot, so the director didn’t take that risk. But even with these amendments to reality, it’s an interesting tale.
By Lawrence Toppman
Posted: Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014
COLUMNISTS »
Lawrence Toppman
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Scott Garfield - Sony Pictures Classics
Steve Carell (left) as John du Pont and Mark Ruffalo as Dave Schultz
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REVIEW
‘Foxcatcher’
A strange rich man takes control of the U.S. national wrestling team, with disastrous results. Chilly but fascinating movie based on a real incident that ended in tragedy.
B STARS: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo.
DIRECTOR: Bennett Miller.
RUNNING TIME: 134 minutes.
RATING: R (some drug use and a scene of violence).
Bennett Miller has directed three feature films in his brief but illustrious career, all about real people in similar circumstances: An intellectual misfit inserts himself into a society where he’s unwelcome, and his awkward efforts to fit in lead to havoc.
The results were eerily touching in “Capote” and comic in “Moneyball,” but they’re tragic in “Foxcatcher.” (If you don’t know why, this review won’t tell you.) The picture has ice at its heart – you won’t want to hug or root for anyone, except perhaps one supporting character – but it’s disturbingly intelligent.
The oddball in this case is John du Pont, scion of one of America’s richest families. (The title comes from the name of his estate, Foxcatcher Farms, and from his blueblooded clan’s penchant for hunting.)
He invested hugely in the U.S. national wrestling team, building a training facility to prepare it for the 1988 Olympics; in return, he was named coach of that team, though he knew little about the sport.
The movie divides its attention among du Pont (Steve Carell, outfitted with an enormous false nose) and wrestling brothers he thought would be the cornerstones of his squad: Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo), who had both won gold at the 1984 Olympics.
Mark, a slow-witted loner in this version, moves to du Pont’s farm and buys into his vision. Dave, a settled family guy with no ambitions to leave his college coaching job, resists du Pont but eventually succumbs to a generous offer.
Writers E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman don’t give backstories for characters. We know nothing about the Schultzes’ lives to this point, except that Dave feels protective toward his younger sibling, and Mark doesn’t want to live in Dave’s shadow. We see du Pont briefly through the eyes of his contemptuous mother (Vanessa Redgrave) and hear quiet heartbreak in his voice when he tells a story about his youth: He had one friend growing up, the son of the family chauffeur, until he learned his mother had been paying the kid to hang around him.
So we watch the unsettling dynamics of this triangle play out against the snowy landscape of southeastern Pennsylvania, knowing something bizarre will eventually occur but not able to anticipate how or why.
Ultimately, we feel like we’re watching rats in a posh, complicated maze.
Carell’s acting has been rightly praised, though it consists mostly of staring at people with an unfathomable, piercing gaze; Miller aims for maximum creepiness, and Carell delivers it. Ruffalo remains warm-hearted in his small role, and Tatum makes the mumbling, stolid Mark Schultz into a sympathetic person.
The wrestling scenes are well-rehearsed and well-executed; though Tatum has a wrestler’s build and Ruffalo does not, both have learned their moves well.
But the script exaggerates almost everything for effect, from a wrestler’s need to lose weight in two hours before a bout (nobody drops 11 pounds that fast) to the size of du Pont’s honker: It’s so big Carell tips his head back to balance it, like a wary toucan.
The real multimillonaire had a doctorate in natural science from Villanova University and had wrestled in high school, though briefly; the one in the film seems like a self-declared expert on birds and wouldn’t know an arm drag from a drag queen.
I suspect Miller worried we might empathize with du Pont if he didn’t seem like a complete crackpot, so the director didn’t take that risk. But even with these amendments to reality, it’s an interesting tale.
