Transformed Carell

Rating: Null/10 (8 March 2015)

While this movie is based on well-publicized actual events, an extra SPOILER is warranted as not every moviegoer is aware of these events.
"Foxcatcher" was the only major contender that I did not get a chance to see before Oscar Night. No one expected Steve Carell to win and he didn't. Yet most would agree that he was good enough to win but was unlucky to have bumped into such a strong field.
This biopic recounts the ultra-opulent yet grim life of John Eleuthere du Pont. More specifically it covers the later part of his life, past 50. One somewhat unusual thing here, for this type of movie, is that there is no flashback whatsoever of his earlier life, particularly childhood and teens. Whatever impact his earlier life had on this man we see in the movie is addressed subtly. I'll come back to this.
A movie on the sport of Olympic wrestling (a term I coined to differentiate it from the show business WTF) admittedly does not offer the same level of excitement the audience gets from its pugilistic counterparts. And yet, I find it just as enjoyable as (and sometimes even more than) boxing every time I watch the Olympics. The fluid, explosive lunges and the tenacious, gripping holds, at extreme ends of the motion spectrum, are equally mesmerizing.
The storyline is simple, an account of how in du Pont's obsession with this sport, he worked on building the team "Foxcatcher" to develop contestants for the U.S. Olympic team. This evolved into building on his opulent estate a training center for the U.S. team, culminating in its failure to capture the gold medal in Seoul. This eventually leads to the tragedy of his shooting the coach. His ultimate fate of dying in prison is mentioned via texts on the screen before the closing credits. This movie is essentially character-driven, as outlined below.
Playing du Pont's aged mother is inimitable Vanessa Redgrave whose distinguished facial features have not changed that much from her Guenevere in "Camelot" almost half a century ago. As I said earlier, influence on de Pont from his childhood days is covered only subtly. From Redgrave's expertly understated performance in just a few scenes, the formation of de Pont's neurotic character under the influence of his dominating mother is quite palpable.
While Redgrave is a minor support in terms of screen time, Channing Tatum is close to being a co-lead. He plays Mark Schultz who, under de Pont's mentorship, won the World Champion but stopped short of the Olympics. This is Tatum's most dramatic role to-date, one that he handled adequately. It may take some time, if he has the innate ability, for him to follow the footstep of Leonardo DiCaprio in the transformation from "star" to "actor".
All this is quite evident in that the Best Support nomination is given to Mark Ruffalo who has considerably less screen time playing the older of the Schultz brothers, David. While Mark Schultz may have huge potentials (as least in de Pont's eyes), it is David who is the established wrestling expert to whose guidance people generally attribute Mark's achievements. Du Pont naturally wants to have David on board but as Mark's cryptic comment aptly puts it "You cannot buy Dave". With his family as top priority, David is reluctant to have it uprooted by moving his wife and two kids to the Foxcatcher estates. Du Pont eventually succeeds in persuading him to do so, probably somehow convincing him that this is best for his family. As I have cited in many of my 1127 IMDb user reviews to-date, it is often the day-to-day roles with no glaringly unusual characteristics that are most difficult to play. David Schultz is a good example: successful athlete, devoted family man, loving older brother, which could have been any guy next door. Yet Ruffalo's Oscar nomination is fully deserved.
One support character, Sienna Millar as David Schultz's wife, I like to mention even if it minor in terms of both screen time and demand of the role. The interesting thing here is that Millar, in both of her two 2014 movies, played the wife of a man that is shot to death. Both actors she played against earned Oscar nominations. In "American Sniper", however, Chris Kyle's murder is not shown in the movie and so the audience is spared the agony of watching the wife clinging desperately onto the body of the dying husband, as in "Foxcatcher".
Steve Carell in "Foxcatcher" you can readily recognize in looks (although I suspect some work has been done to his nose) but not in persona. So much applauds have been bestowed on his brave step into a brand new area of acting that there is little I can add to what I have already said. The hidden, homicidal menace he projects well. As well, du Pont plays off one brother against the other, putting into Mark's mind (without resorting to inception!!!) the idea that living under the shadow of David has hindered the development of his own potentials. Through Carell's subtle, nuanced performance, the audience can sense how du Pont feels about his own potentials being crushed by his mother's dominance.