Director Bennett Miller has a magnificent talent. I'm not talking his talent as a director or as a storyteller, even though those qualities are also quite phenomenal. No, his talent is that he's able to take an actor or actors that may or may not have had some sort of stigma of not being a serious actor or even a great actor and turning them into something unseen in film before. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was a character actor sure, but before Capote no one really knew just how GREAT the man actually was. Moneyball showed us that Jonah Hill wasn't a total dipshit and could actually act. However, Miller's greatest feat is Foxcatcher. He is somehow able to transform (and not just through makeup) Steve Carell from one of the most likable comedic faces in Hollywood into an unsympathetic psycho creep. The magic doesn't even stop there! Guess what? Channing Tatum... can act! He's not just a "charming potato", but he's an actual actor with actual talent. Go. Figure.
So, I've learned that a lot of people don't actually know the true story that Foxcatcher tells and the unexpected ending that occurs if you're not already familiar, so I will not be spoiling anything. However, Foxcatcher gives us the relationship between Olympic wrestling gold medalist Mark Schultz and billionaire John Du Pont. Schultz had won the gold in wrestling in the 84 Olympics and was training for the 88. His brother David was also a gold winner. Mark is then contacted by John Du Pont and offers him money to come and stay at the Foxcatcher camp where he and his family reside. He builds an entire training center and wants to be a coach and a mentor to Mark in order for him to get the gold once again. The "funny" thing is... Du Pont doesn't know a thing about wrestling. He's a psychotic billionaire narcissist with a mommy complex. His mother's views on wrestling were that it was barbaric and a gentleman doesn't get involved with it. Instead, a gentleman rides horses in competition. He's a freaky mouth-breathing weirdo who's never been looked up to and never had a friend. So, when he sees that he can not only use his esteem and his money to buy a trainee, he will also be able to become a mentor to someone, a friend to someone, and show his mommy he's not a total screw-up.
For those of you who've seen The Office John Du Pont is essentially the same person as Michael Scott. His need to be liked is his sole purpose for living. Whereas Michael Scott is a quirky and funny and harmless, Du Pont is crazy, dark, and dangerous. His need for anyone's approval drives him and when he is disappointed his responses are overreactions and violence. And because someone who doesn't know anything about Olympic wrestling can't be a proper coach, Du Pont recruits Mark's brother Dave to come and help. This ends up driving a wedge between Mark and Dave because Dave is suspicious of Du Pont and Mark can't see it. Then later drives a wedge between Dave and Du Pont because Dave only wants the best for his brother and Du Pont thinks Dave is trying to overshadow him.
Tatum is amazing as Mark. He looks like a hulking man-ape with an overbite that never blinks. He's always focused on his goal of winning. If you look at him in the eyes, there's nothing going on upstairs other than wrestling and winning. It's a commitment to character that we haven't seen from Channing on film yet and it's remarkable. Mark Ruffalo as Dave is also a stellar performance, but this is what we've come to expect from Ruffalo. But, it's Carell's performance of Du Pont that steals the show... that makes the film worth watching. He is literally unrecognizable and dives so deeply into character that we can see Carell's inner dark side. I compared Du Pont to Michael Scott, but the way the characters act couldn't be more different. There is no light in Du Pont's eyes. There is no child-like innocence. There is a lonely man seeking a friend and approval that can never truly be satisfied that when the end of the movie comes, though it is shocking... it really isn't.
This has been a year for the actor. So many actors have turned in beautiful performances and literally become other people that we as an audience can easily distinguish the actor from the character... which is what makes a great actor as well as a great film. If the actor and the character aren't distinguishable... they've failed. Steve Carell deserves at the very least a nomination, if not the win. He's a villain played as great as any in the past decade. Foxcatcher may move at a very slow pace at times, but it's carefully building it's story. It's carefully constructing it's characters. It's carefully going into the minds of a troubled young man and a disturbed billionaire to inevitably lead up to the unbelievable (yet very true) climax of the film.
A
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