Wonderful performances in a dull overlong film

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2015)

Brothers Dave and Mark Schultz both won gold medals for wrestling at the Los Angeles Olympics. Industrialist, philanthropist, and America's richest man John Du Pont prevails upon Mark to join him at his ranch Foxcatcher in order to establish Team Foxcatcher to pursue American wrestling to greater glories.
This film dramatises a real-life series of events with a tragic ending, and highlights excellent performances from Mark Ruffalo and (perhaps unexpectedly) Channing Tatum as the brothers, and a stunning piece of work from Steve Carell. Unrecognisable behind prosthetic nose and teeth, Carell manages to give Du Pont a pair of eyes which are barely human: every second he is on screen, you are acutely aware that there is something very, very wrong with him. It is a stunning performance judged by any criteria, but given Carell's comedy background it comes as a huge shock.
If only that were all. But it is unfortunate that these performances inhabit a film which has two major flaws. The first is the running time. At 130 minutes, the film drags terribly. Right from the opening sequence of the brothers training, scenes make their point and then drag on and on to increasingly little point. And the other flaw is that, after all that, I'm none the wiser. What caused the deterioration in the relationship between Mark and Du Pont? Was there some sort of homosexual interaction? If so, nothing was spelled out. What led to the final events? Was it simply a reaction to the mother's death? Again, no explanation was offered, and I needed a little bit of resolution in terms of understanding why these things had happened.
Director Bennett Miller is nominated for Best Director Oscar this year. He doesn't deserve to win.