As with all of director Bennett Miller's three features (including his first two, CAPOTE and MONEYBALL), his latest, FOXCATCHER, is a prime example of how truly great films can be looked at in two distinct ways: we can look at what happens in the film, and we can look deeper to see what the film is really about. It's particularly evident that Miller isn't interested in simply re-creating the events surrounding wrestlers/brothers Mark and Dave Schultz (Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, respectively) and billionaire John du Pont (Steve Carell); Miller is determined to relive them in all of their twisted, ugly and haltingly captivating glory.
Miller's works have all been so uniquely American, but rarely has he captured the absolute truth about the delusional patriotism that infects so many of us from the desperately poor to the obscenely rich. Through Carell's haunting portrayal of the wealthy heir to the du Pont family fortune, as well as it's long, esteemed lineage, Miller and his writers, E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, give us a complete package of an isolated man, who wants to connect with the commoners (in this case, a group of Olympics-bound wrestlers training at his massive estate), while still wanting to be acknowledged as their better, elder, father figure.
When the light captures du Point in a certain way—his enormous, beak-like nose, his slightly pronounced middle-front teeth)—he looks remarkably like Count Orlok from NOSFERATU, and it is in those very intentional (I believe) moments when we're looking into the man's true soul. He is empty, lonely, fatherless, under the ever-watchful eye of his elitist mother (Vanessa Redgrave), who looks upon John's beloved wrestling as a "low sport." The sad truth about John du Pont is that he is a man with no talents and nothing to offer with the one exception of his money, which he was generous with, but he also used it for ridiculous purchases like a full-size tank or the training facility that serves as the focal point of this story.
Part of his definition of being a patriot is being a winner in sports, and since John is too old and not talented enough to earn medals in the Olympics himself, he essentially hires the best wrestlers from around the nation and brings them to his Foxcatcher estate. Enter: Mark Schultz, another fatherless man, who grew up with older brother and fellow gold medal-winning wrestler Dave, a sweet and generous man, on top of being a fantastic wrestling coach. But Mark is a socially awkward man, who feels like he's been living in his brother's shadow his entire life. So when du Pont approaches him (and not Dave initially) about moving to the ranch and putting together a wrestling team to shine at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he jumps at the chance to shine brightly in the light of his own fire.
I've always believed Tatum to be a much better actor than most give him credit for, but his work in FOXCATCHER is otherworldly—his version of Mark is angry, frustrated, desperate and in great need of his brother's guidance, even when he refuses to admit that. And under the probing eyes of John du Pont, Mark is pushed to places he knows he shouldn't go. He loses his center, his core, his stabilizing force. There are no worse moments in the film than the ones where the brothers aren't getting along.
There's a moment early in the film where we first see the Schultz brothers sparring together as part of their training; there is no dialogue, just a type of aggressive, brutal dance that occurs between them in a way that could only happen between two people who know each other's physical and emotional limits. Dave can sense that on this day Mark is upset just from the way he spars, the way he swings his arms, the noises he makes, the ferocity in his eyes. It's a scary and fascinating exchange that tells us all we need to know about these brothers without a word passing between them.
Even in du Pont's lighter, eccentric, even funny moments, we spot his darker side. A drunken celebratory party among the wrestlers and "Coach" du Pont ends with John tackling some of his charges and pinning them to the ground the way a parent would pretend fall to the ground after being tackled by their child. There's a dark, sometimes sickening humor that runs through FOXCATCHER that may be the most difficult tone of the film for audiences to embrace. But if they do, the rewards are rich and twisted—much like du Pont himself.
I've seen FOXCATCHER twice now, and each time I noticed such different things about every aspect of the story, from the depths of the betrayal and corruption to the layers of familial bonds—real, imagined, and desired. The first time I saw it, it left me impressed with the performances but cold in my soul; the second time, the emotional content of the film leapt out at me, especially through Ruffalo's soulful performance, in the way the protective Dave never wanted to make an enemy; he might not have anything nice to say about you, but he'll be damned if that means he's going to say something nasty. Man, is Ruffalo good here, and if he's doing his job well, you won't even notice.
FOXCATCHER is the ultimate, slow-spinning, downward spiral, surrounded by smaller spirals going in every direction. That are moments of absolute triumph in the brothers' lives. When they work in tandem, they are virtually unstoppable. But when they are apart, something is missing. There's no need to talk about the end of the film. You either know where it's going or you don't; either way, the ending is both shocking and inevitable, but I don't think it will change your feeling on the film as a whole.
Director Miller chooses to end FOXCATCHER with a rather bittersweet postscript, verifying what we already knew—no one got out of this situation better for the experience, and there's no reason to let us think otherwise. Although it doesn't happen often, it is possible for a masterpiece to leave you feeling empty and chilled to the bone; you may even hate the feeling. But if that is, to a degree, exactly the feeling the filmmaker wanted to instill in you, maybe the film worked.
Do me a favor if you walk out of FOXCATCHER not sure how you felt about it—see it one more time a couple weeks later. It's a different experience when you can actually focus on the subtext and not get pleasantly distracted by the flawless, transformative makeup and mannerisms surrounding the performances. FOXCATCHER is a layered, death-defying journey into the misguided minds of lost American souls. In other words, it's about a lot of us.
