Emotionally cold sports-drama but with an amazing performance from Steve Carrell

Rating: 6/10 (16 October 2017)

There have been a few critically praised professional fighter movies in recent years such as The Wrestler (2008), The Fighter (2010) and Warrior (2011). Foxcatcher is another in this line of serious-minded sports-dramas, except this may be the most downbeat of them all. Unlike the others, this one is also a docudrama biopic based on real characters and events which surrounded Team Foxcatcher, which was the brainchild of billionaire John du Pont who used his money to gather the American wrestling team to live and train on his estate in preparation for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. The two most prominent members of this team were the Olympic gold-medal winning brothers Dave and Mark Schultz. The story is primarily told from the latter's perspective, as he enters the weird world of du Pont.
I wasn't in the least bit aware of anything to do with this true story when I watched this. It is certainly a very odd set of events that is for sure and one which does justify a movie. It does have to be said though that this is one of those films which adopts a very emotionally distant tone, which means that it is hard getting as involved with the characters as maybe we really should be. It's so overwhelmingly bleak and humourless that it is difficult to fully enjoy to be perfectly honest. But it is still an interesting story overall though, which results in a murder that I frankly did not predict in the least. The du Pont character is certainly a bizarre one. He lives with his mother in a huge mansion but seems to suffer from some social condition which makes him extremely odd in one-to-one conversations and interactions. Despite his highly sheltered life he improbably has a cocaine habit, as well as an unusual obsession with professional wrestling. It has to be said that Steve Carell is quite brilliant as this awkward character, in a performance which is the chief selling point of the movie overall. He completely immerses himself in the role and the result is what you could describe as truly proper acting. Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo are also very good as the two Shultz brothers but this is really Carrell's movie overall, given how outstanding he was. The film as a whole is an impressive enough one which tells an interesting story but its thoroughly downbeat execution means it's one which keeps its distance from you and, as such, it's a movie which is easier to admire than to love.