Great Performances in a film that ached for some keen editing.

Rating: 5/10 (16 May 2015)

This is not a bad film; problem is it should have been bloody great one. It is based on the real life shenanigans of John E. du Pont – one of America's richest men. He is so rich he can have and do whatever he wants and he wants to have his own wrestling team, and go to the Olympics in Seoul and win gold and him pretend to be the coach and get all the laurels like some latter day Roman Emperor a la mode of Nero oh and have a real friend.
He sets up a state of the art gym and lures two wrestling brothers, the Schultz brothers – played by Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo to come and join his team called 'Foxcatcher'. Du Pont is played Steve Carell and all of them put in credit worthy performances and this must have been a very physical role. There is a lot of wrestling – the Roman – Greco sort not the sort that is basically bad choreography (but much more fun) and the need to be very emotional too.
The 'however 'here is that some scenes go on too long, even the so called scene setting at the beginning just goes on forever, this is 134 minutes long and there was so much that could have been cut that would have given this more immediacy – which is what is needed in a film that posits itself as a thriller – I would have called it a drama to be honest but that is a small point. This is still well worth watching but I think director Bennett Miller could have left a bit more on the editing suite floor as this story did not lend itself to 'lyrical delivery' as it is often euphemistically called and there was a lot more to the story that would have risen it higher in the entertainment ranks too especially about Du Pont, but that is always the choice of the makers.