Based on true events, the story of Olympic Gold Medal-winning wrestler Mark Schultz, who sees a way out from the shadow of his more celebrated wrestling brother Dave and a life of poverty when he is summoned by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont to move onto his estate and train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Desperate to gain the respect of his disapproving mother, du Pont begins 'coaching' a world-class athletic team and, in the process, lures Mark into dangerous habits, breaks his confidence and drives him into a self-destructive spiral.
In the end, nevertheless, it's the three male leads that bring the human story to the foreground; to me, Channing Tatum's proto-Homo-Sapiens wrestler/caveman is startling to watch.
There is an unspoken emptiness that hangs boldly over Foxcatcher, which is sure to be one of the subtly darkest films made by a major Hollywood studio this year.
Watch this film for the performances: Tatum and Ruffalo finding new ground in familiar personas; Carell immersing himself into the mindset of a troubled man ...
Miami Herald
December 18, 2014
Foxcatcher is too cold of a movie to love, but that chilliness is intentional and transfixing, a parable about the darkest corners of the minds of damaged men that dares to whisper instead of shout.
There are times in this brilliantly acted and understated psychological drama when it seems very little happens at all, but when the lights go up you're left reeling by the culmination of events that have quietly unfolded.
Written by Dan Futterman and E Max Frye, Foxcatcher is an intermittently rivetting, self-conscious and deadly serious exploration of the peculiar nature of the relationship between Du Pont and his possession.
[Miller] is equally adept at portraying the peculiarities of wrestling here, and how those physical moves -- beautifully choreographed and executed -- sync with deeper psychological currents.
