Co-dependents Tatum and Carell excel in “Foxcatcher”
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Drama. R. 134 min-
Movies seldom achieve the meticulous vision of director BennettMiller’s “Foxcatcher,” about the fraught relationship of scion John du Pont, a wrestling coach wannabe, and Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz.
Bennett won best director at May’s Cannes Film Festival, and the movie has screened at a number of festivals, including the recently concluded 37th Starz Denver Film Festival.
Even so, some have found the brooding drama— written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman— a cold outing, its exquisitely mindful craft beside the point. It is not.
Utilizing forward-moving, deeply meditative rhythms, Miller examines the tragic consequences of a co-dependent but profoundly unequal relationship. More vitally, “Foxcatcher” offers an uncomfortable but resonant take on the ongoing wrestling bout between American entitlement and optimism.
In the late 1980s, Mark Schultz gets a call froman assistant to John du Pont. It’s a summons, really. Johnwants to meet with him.
Mark is whisked up and away to Foxcatcher Farm, the du Pont estate in Pennsylvania where he becomes the centerpiece of du Pont’s wrestling squad, Team Foxcatcher.
Much has been said of Steve Carell’s deadly serious turn as du Pont. But glimmers of the comic actor’s depth have danced around his performances for years (“Dan in Real Life” “Crazy, Stupid, Love” even “Little Miss Sunshine”).
In addition to being a conchologist, philatelist, philanthropist and sports benefactor, du Pont was a ornithologist. So he might have appreciated the distracting prosthetic beak Carell often seems to be peering down from.
The actor and his director capture the imperial aura of this man who likes to spout his grand theories of democratic values.
But it’s Channing Tatum who burrows so touchingly down into a wounded beast of a man. Mark is a sullen hulk. His shoulders have taken on a perpetual slump under the weight of a burden we cannot know fully. It is the “now what?” burden of a man who has reached a pinnacle at a young age. It is the weight of being a little brother.
Whenwe firstmeet Mark, he is about to give a speech to a half-full auditorium of elementary school kids about the gold medal hewon in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. He is subbing for older brother Dave, also a gold medal Olympian, the one people seek out.
In contrast to Mark’s lumbering, Dave Shultz exhibits an ease in the world and a genuine concern for his younger brother. Mark Ruffalo portrays the likeable family man and pragmatic champion-turned-coach. Even buried beneath a beard, there is a understanding smile at the ready.
Since their parents’ divorce, Dave has been his brother’s keeper. One of the film’s finest moments comes early, as the two begin a practice session. Their work shifts from reindeer game to earnest bout, from terse embraces to slaps to takedowns. It is amuscular minuet and a delicate duel inwhich Dave stays calm and Mark gives in to frustration.
Although John and Mark’s codependent clutch is at the heart of “Foxcatcher,” Dave makes for a triangle. Du Pont, eager to build a truly competitive team, sets his sights on Dave.
Vanessa Redgrave plays du Pont’s withholding mother. “Foxcatcher” doesn’t blamewhat takes place onMombut it is clear John wants to one-up his mother even as he secures her approval.
When the exacting matriarch is wheeled into the Foxcatcher training facility to watch a sport she has already pronounced “low,” John begins performing his role as coach.
This is similar to an earlier scene in which du Pont roughhouses with his young wrestlers after Mark wins the world championships. It is bitterly funny even as it is infused with failure.
If du Pont pontificates, Mark is bunkered in silence. A particularly devastating scene explodes in a hotel room because Mark has long run out of language to articulate his needs and his anguish.
In a movie focused on frozen emotions, Greig Fraser’s cinematography has an understated warmth. Chalk it up to Miller’s compassionate if precise vision.
Equally deft, production designer Jess Gonchor re-creates spaces lavish or lived-in: from Mark’sWisconsin apartment to the Foxcatcher Farm trophy room, from a dank college wrestling gym to a swank gathering of muckety-mucks.
Much of the action in “Foxcatcher” seems to unfold in the beauty of East Coast autumns. Yet the final moments take place in a snowy gray.
These chilly scenes of winter capture a mood that has hung over thewhole affair fromthe get-go.
“Foxcatcher” relates a tragedy peculiarly personal, but also arguably American. In this regard, it can be likened to George Stevens’ “A Place in the Sun.”
Yes, it captures the terrible, even dangerous, vulnerability of the seemingly strong but profoundly lost.
But it also traces the disquieting distance between thosewho have but don’t feel they do and those who don’t but imagine they can.