In ‘87, wrestling champion Mark Schultz is contacted by millionaire John du Pont who offers him accommodation on his premises in Pennsylvania and finance if Mark agrees to assemble a wrestling team, with du Pont serving as the coach. Mark brings his brother Dave on board, who was initially reluctant since he has a family already. Their team is called “Foxcatcher” and experiences both succes and failure. When du Pont’s mother dies, he banishes her horses because he hates them. Inexplicably, in ‘96 du Pont one day shoots and kills Dave at his back yard. Du Ponte is later arrested and sentenced to prison for murder.
“Foxcatcher” by director Bennett Miller is a meandering reconstruction of the John du Pont criminal case, and the phenomenon of the American random shooting and decadence of the rich in one, aggravated by its hermetic, almost autistic filmmaking style. Its main virtues are its three excellent actors, all cast against type, which is especially noteworthy for comedian Steve Carell who plays du Pont without a single shred of humor (except maybe in the macabre scene where he admits to finding out his mom paid a boy to be his friend during his childhood), but Channing Tatum is also incredible as Mark, lost in trying to figure out why du Pont is financing his wrestling team. However, it is difficult not to compare “Foxcatcher” with a similar film, Schroeder’s superior “Reversal of Fortune”, which managed to be consistently interesting, concise, creative and purposeful, as well as being able to deliver a full character portrait of its anti-hero, something which is (sometimes) lacking in Miller’s film. Sometimes fascinating, sometimes boring, “Foxcatcher” is all build-up to the main incident at the end, but when it finally happens, it feels strangely unsatisfactory and detached: it simply lacks a motive or a reason for why he did what he did in the finale. Since even the events we are watching may be irrelevant to that incident, it is disorienting as to what plays a role and to what degree. Alas, the film seems incomplete in the finale.
Grade:++
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