The American Dream curdled

Rating: 8/10 (15 November 2014)

FOXCATCHER (2014) *** Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Michael Hall. Absorbing fact-based drama about Olympic-driven wrestler Mark Schultz (Tatum) who finds himself invited to be sponsored for the 1988 Olympics by eccentric (to say the least) millionaire John E. du Pont (Carell, buried under puttified make-up and prosthetic nose and teeth, giving one creepazoid yet genuinely great performance) whose bizarre status building dreams overshadow the dark underpinnings of male bonding, self-privileged allusions and ultimately paranoia. While the pacing by director Bennett Miller is at times teeth-grindingly dull (with practically zero soundtrack and dead spots of unease silence to a fault) the well-structured script by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman is spot-on with how one's perceptions tend to overshadow one's reality (i.e. 'the American Dream'). Ruffalo gives a quietly dignified supporting turn as Mark's older brother David whose weariness in duPont's Macchiavelean ego foreshadows its tragic final act all too well.