A chilly, forbidding film

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 2015)

"Foxcatcher" is a grim, depressing and dislikeable film in which the American Dream turns very sour indeed. It's based on actual characters and events and is totally without humour. There is nothing to eradicate the clammy feeling that something isn't right here. An unrecognizable Steve Carell, (with prosthetic nose), is John du Pont, a member of America's richest family, a man with too much money, too much time on his hands and almost pathological fear and probable hatred of his mother, (a steely, forbidding Vanessa Redgrave), who decides to sponsor and coach brothers Mark and David Schultz and the American Olympic Wrestling Team.
From the outset you know this creepy little man has an agenda other than the straightforward one of seeing his fellow countrymen pick up gold though it's hard to guess exactly what it is. The film never makes explicit du Pont's psychosis. Is he simply a closeted homosexual? Perhaps. Watching it I was reminded of the old gag, "My mother made me a homosexual". "If I gave her the wool would she make me one, too". (Any joke, even one as lame as this one, would have been welcome during the course of this movie). Or is he looking for the sons he never had or are likely to have? The brothers are played by Channing Tatum, (Mark), and David Ruffalo, (David), and they are both excellent. Tatum is a revelation; there is a touch of Lon Chaney's Lennie in "Of Mice and Men" in this performance. He is a lumbering giant, not very bright and almost totally dependent on his brother. Ruffalo has the smaller part and he gives the film its only warmth. Otherwise this is a chilly, downbeat movie and I don't plan on seeing it again any time soon.