Foxcatcher

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2015)

The greatest Olympic Wrestling Champion brother team joins Team Foxcatcher led by multimillionaire sponsor John E. du Pont as they train for the 1988 games in Seoul - a union that leads to unlikely circumstances.
Foxcatcher is directed by Oscar nominated Bennett Miller, stars Steve Carell also nominated for best actor in a leading role, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo. In fact Steve Carell performance is very good, he's properly unrecognisable. At this point, his performance is clearly career defining. Plus in my opinion Channing Tatum is largely underestimated. He gives a performance that is so restrained and in which you can read so much on his face, some moments you can literally feel his pain and torment. Mark Ruffalo plays a father who is very protective of his family but also of his brother and he also deserves his Oscar nomination for best actor in a supporting role. In fact, all those three performances are Oscar worthy to me or at least nomination worthy as the movie cannot function without them. However it is a quite slow paced movie, there are few 5 to 10 minutes long sequences and you are left wondering what was the real purpose of those scenes. This movie is based on a true story and tries to make a statement on why Dupont did what he did. The emotional core of the movie is very hollow and distant. As I said before I think Channing Tatum is the lead actor in this film; some of you can disagree and think that it is Steve Carell, but Tatum's character is the only one I really felt connected with. Finally, if you combined the slow pace, the blank emotional core and the fact that you can't really understand some of the character motivation behind this film it's a little bit disappointing.
Overall Foxcatcher is a beautifully shot movie with some out of this world performances but the heart and soul of the film itself is a little bit distasteful.