This is the rare film that I would absolutely recommend but also understand if not everyone liked it. Some of the criticisms being leveled against it are fair ones, but I also feel like—-at this point—-it’s a nearly underrated work that isn’t getting its proper due. It deserves to be more at the forefront of Oscar season than it is.
What Works: Foxcatcher is based on the true story of unstable heir to the DuPont fortune John E. Dupont and his bizarre friendship (or is it antagonistic?) with Olympic wrestlers Dave and Mark Shultz. Even if you know how this story ends, there’s a mood of dread and cerebral suspense that hangs over almost every scene. And a lot of that is thanks to the excellent performances of Steve Carell and Channing Tatum.
Much has been made of the amazing physical and emotional transformation that Steve Carell undergoes, but you really can’t undersell it: he’s an actor reborn. For some time now, I’ve grown tired of Carell’s acting and have frequently wondered if he was trying to channel a liberal version of Rick Santorum by playing so many dull characters in a row. I knew that he had darker and more dramatic edges to explore, and there’s a spookiness to his liberating performance as DuPont. For the first time, I felt like Carell really and truly doesn’t care if we like him or not, and it looks great on him. DuPont is the kind-of guy it’s possible to feel resentment, pity, sympathy, and anger towards in the exact same minute; he complains about not having any friends in one moment and then show you exactly why that is in the next.
But equally good—though less heralded—is Channing Tatum, also pulling out a layered performance you might not have known he had in him. I’ve always felt Tatum wasn’t the Vin Diesel lunkhead or Justin Timberlake pretty boy so many people have made him out to be, and I think this is the performance that will finally shut his detractors up. Like Carell, he’s not worried about whether you’ll like him or not, and his brooding wrestler is a time bomb you can’t stop watching, waiting to see when he’ll go off.
What Doesn’t: Vanessa Redgrave’s role as Dupont’s mother is under-developed and I think it’s a shame that Mark Ruffalo seems like a lock for a Best Supporting Actor nomination but few are even talking about Tatum’s chances. Nothing against Ruffalo, but this is really Tatum’s movie as much as it is Carell’s.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Director Bennett Miller (of Moneyball fame, but he’s working in more “Capote” mode here) proves that he’s one of the most under-heralded masters out there today, and reveals that two movie stars are also great actors. Even though not everyone will like this movie, I’m not sure what else I could ask out of it. Miller has taken what is, essentially, thirty seconds of action (that tragic climax) and turned it into two hours of riveting psychological duels between men whose dynamic keeps changing. Not many could make the inner workings of a friendship feel like a taut thriller, and fold a wrestling movie into that as well (itself an allegory for men’s toxic need to one-up each other).