This Sporting Life

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2014)

This film is recommended.
John Eleuthère du Pont, heir to the du Pont fortune and avid sports fan. Mark Schultz, Olympic wrestling champion. Dave Schultz, brother of Mark, friend of John, and another Olympic winner. This trio comes together, setting their sights on a common goal in Bennett Miller's compelling fact-based drama, Foxcatcher.
Steve Carell plays the obsessive du Pont, a wealthy entrepreneur who loves to collect things: stamps, stuffed animals, firearms, money, and athletes. He starts a wrestling school called Foxcatcher Farm with his loftiest goal to reach that Olympic gold. But there is no glory in this tragic story, as he begins to nurture the young ambitious Mark, under the tutelage and help of his devoted older brother and develops a strange hold on both siblings.
Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futtleman, Foxcatcher tells its story of corruption, power, wealth, and control with a minimum of dramatic flourish. Their screenplay documents this stranger-than-fiction true story, but the slow pacing of the film tends to distill the impact of the circumstances. The three main characters are well-written but other supporting roles seem sketchy and not as strongly developed. The time line of events seems blurred also, especially the physical transformation of Mark Schultz who gains and loses poundage in mega-minutes.
However, Foxcatcher does have, in its corner, superb performances. Channing Tatum delivers the best work as the beleaguered wrestler, unsure of his talent and overly-eager to please. Mark Ruffalo grounds his character and shows a loving brother and competitive coach simultaneously with such subtlety and conviction. Vanessa Redgrave, Sienna Miller, and Anthony Michael Hall give solid support in their underwritten roles.
But earning the gold for this film is Carell as the schizophrenic philanthropist. The actor sheds his comic talent and delves into the psychotic world of du Pont with a fury of emotions that will startle and deeply sadden any moviegoer. He plays this complicated character as an outsider, a short stocky oddity, out-of-touch with reality and consumed with escalating rage. This is certainly a banner year for actors and their physical transformation and Carell's portrayal is one of this year's finest.
Foxcatcher is well directed by Miller who seems to have a special fascination with eccentric characters, as shown in his two previous films (Capote, Moneyball). He shrewdly establishes the characters and their relationships almost immediately but rarely lets the actual suspense build. One wonders (and never fully comprehends) the bizarre behavior on the screen and the illogical actions of these characters without any immediate consequences early on, questioning why the warning signals were so readily overlooked to prevent this outcome. Never the screenplay, characters, or direction clearly answer that issue.
One may know the outcome of the film well before viewing. But Foxcatcher deals with its violence unflinchingly and tackles the issue of mental health in a no-holds-barred way. Foxcatcher carries with it a ring of truth about the madness of sports, competition, and raw ambition, and while it may not fully deliver on its initial promise to captivate and impress its audience, it does have three stunning bits of acting that are top contenders this year. That alone makes the film worth viewing. GRADE: B
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