Tackles the Heart, but Lacks the Soul.

Rating: 5/10 (27 July 2015)

Foxcatcher seems to ride that fine line between a sports film with masculine themes and an artistically filmed movie looking to put a unique spin on the world of professional and Olympic wrestling. Being drawn towards films that like to try and mesh together two worlds that seem on opposite ends of the spectrum, I expected Foxcatcher to be a stark portrayal of the life of Mark Schultz, however, upon watching it things became clear that the movie was about John Du Pont, Mark, and his brother Dave Schultz, which was unexpected, but not the problem.
As tragic as the story is, the problem is in how things unfold. Granted that working with a true story puts some limits on artistic license, little is done to really heighten the tension in the film to a boiling point. Even when things seem at their most tense, a lack of atmosphere and soundtrack always keeps things too bleak and saturated for the sake of realism to make it any bit interesting or fun to watch. Foxcatcher feels like more of an education of the story of the Schultz brothers more than a film to entertain.
Which leads me to my next problem with the film. If it is a film to educate, it does very little in terms of explaining the sport of wrestling to help understand the matches we witness and elevate the intensity. Two types of movie goers I would expect are most likely to watch this movie, and they would be wrestlers and/or fans of professional wrestling, or movie buffs. But given the dedication to their art and life long practice of sports, I don't see many serious wrestlers taking to watching serious films spotlighting cinematography, dialog, saturation, aesthetics; the look of the film, the sound editing, and attention to detail that otherwise does this film justice.
Having friends that wrestle, I know that they haven't even seen the movie, nor do they seem to care to. So it seems that little was done to make sure that Foxcatcher hit its target audience. The lack of attention it got during the Academy Awards outside of a few nominations could be further evidence that while well received, it just isn't all that interesting. Its long, well shot, but slow paced, and not in a good way. The film just doesn't resonate as well as it's other contemporaries do.
If you're a fan of both wrestling and artistically filmed movies, or a fan of true stories, then by all means, this movie will perhaps be for you. For everyone else, I cannot recommend Foxcatcher for any reason other than that of curiosity.