Foxcatcher—Movie Review

by Peter J. O'Connell

Foxcatcher. Released: Nov. 2014. Running time: 134 mins. Rated: R for some drug use and a scene of violence.

Steve Carell has made a career out of playing nerds, some comedic, some appealing. In Foxcatcher he plays a real-life supernerd, one who was superrich, one who reveals the dark and dangerous side of nerdiness, a side that is no laughing matter, a side that is appalling rather than appealing.

Carell plays John E. du Pont, a scion of the famed munitions and chemical family. John, raised coldly in a dynastic setting rather than a warm family one, has little to do with the business and involves himself with ornithology, philately, philanthropy, guns and the sport of wrestling. His mother (Vanessa Redgrave) wants him to relate to raising thoroughbreds and engaging in fox hunting. John, however, is much more interested in the company of muscular young men than that of horses. He makes the family estate a center for training world-class wrestlers. Styling himself a great patriot, he sees the production of champions, with him as their putative “mentor,” as a way of reviving American pride and traditional values.

His prime hope for winning competitions is Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), a handsome, physically adept—mentally not so much—wrestler, who has flourished under the nurturing of his older brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), also a top wrestler. Unlike John, Dave has a very warm family life with his wife (Sienna Miller) and kids. Dave is reluctant to leave them and join his brother on John's estate, but eventually he does. Things go well in John's new “family of champions” for a while, but the results of the 1988 Olympics set in motion a chain of events that eventually culminates in shocking violence.

The performances in the film are outstanding. Carrel had to transform himself physically, acquiring a prominent prosthetic proboscis, pasty complexion, constipated kind of walk, and reedy, adenoidal voice. Channing Tatum in recent years has developed from a “hunky” actor to an actor who plays “hunks” really well. Mark Ruffalo is the essence of brotherly love and familial devotion as Dave.

Foxcatcher, directed by Bennett Miller, who helmed Capote a few years back, is, like that film, bleakly beautiful. Though filmed on a picturesque country estate, most of the scenes there take place in late autumn or in winter and have a chilly quality that seems quite appropriate. The wrestling  scenes, however, are—also appropriately—sweaty and claustrophobic as grunting athletes grapple with each other. The film's frequent silent stretches and the fine, subdued score by Alexandre Desplat contribute to the overall mood very well.

In Foxcatcher director Miller has been able to merge performances with production values to express a thoughtful vision, one that, as it were, accepts the first part of a famous saying by a famous coach (not John du Pont!) that “winning isn't everything” but rejects the second part, “it's the only thing.”

“Footnote” to the film: Is 2014 the “year of the nerd” cinematically? Jake Gyllenhaal also memorably played a dark and dangerous nerd in Nightcrawler in the fall.