'Foxcatcher' a dark autopsy of the American dream
It might sound nutty to compare Steve Carell's superbly layered performance as billionaire John du Pont in "Foxcatcher" to that of Anthony Perkins' superbly layered performance as Norman Bates in "Psycho."
Bear with me.
Perkins presented Bates as a nervously jumpy, uneducated man emanating a disturbing mix of repression and creepiness.
Carell presents du Pont, at the top of America's 1 percent club, as a sedate and sentient, highly educated man emanating a more subtle, insidious mix of repression and creepiness.
"Psycho," of course, is a carefully crafted fictional horror tale. "Foxcatcher" is a meticulously measured drama perhaps even more horrifying because it really happened.
The story centers around the shocking 1996 murder committed by du Pont, who one day abruptly pumped three bullets into beloved former Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz, for no apparent reason. Schultz had coached du Pont's privately funded wrestling program on his lavish Pennsylvania estate for nearly a decade.
In "Foxcatcher," director Bennett Miller and writers E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman fill in the perplexing blanks on what led up to this seemingly senseless killing.
They prove something crime reporters have known for years: "senseless" crimes always make sense, if only to criminals who commit them.
In a story that begs for lengthy term paper analyses from psych majors, "Foxcatcher" touches on what defines an American dream, what being a real man means, the complexity of sibling rivalry, wealth's corruptive influence on the upper-class perspective and the dangers of suppressing the dark side of the human force.
We meet Channing Tatum's Mark Schultz in 1987 living a rudderless life after winning an Olympic gold medal in wrestling at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Mark seems morosely unhappy, stuck doing motivational speeches at elementary schools filled with kids who don't care.
Mark Ruffalo plays Dave Schultz, his wrestler older brother who also won a gold medal in 1984. Dave, a happy and contented man who lives with his wife (Sienna Miller) and kids in Colorado, became Mark's de facto dad after the deaths of their parents. Dave gives an endless supply of love and support to his mercurial brother.
Out of the blue, Mark receives an invitation to be flown by private helicopter to the du Pont estate where John du Pont himself (Carell) outlines an ambitious program to reinvigorate America's greatest wrestlers by personally training them himself. With Mark's help, of course.
That you already know Carell, the comic star of TV's "The Office" and "The 41-Year-Old Virgin," plays du Pont doesn't matter. His appearance - graying hair, pudgy posture, sallow face, beady eyes staring down a snooty enhanced nose - is so startling that it takes you a few seconds to realize it's Carell, perfecting an utterly transformative performance that ranks with Robert De Niro's Jake LaMotta and Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter.
Uttering his catchphrase of "Good, good," du Pont fumbles through social situations having no sense of boundaries or tact. He harbors a strained hate/really hate relationship with his domineering mother (Vanessa Redgrave) as he waits for her to die and free him from her invisible hold.
Du Pont's insistence that Mark frequently wrestle with him screams with subtext as the needy billionaire creates a virtual fantasy world through his fortune.
Mark almost becomes happy until du Pont, who has always liked Dave better, finally hires the older brother, who could not be bought off at first. Now, back in the shadow of his sibling, Mark descends into self-loathing and drugs with his increasingly scary, self-delusional employer.
"Foxcatcher" (the name of the du Pont estate) follows Miller's other accomplished, fact-based character studies "Capote" and "Moneyball."
It's smart, insightful and frightening, featuring three of the year's best and most complex performances.
The Oscar bait has been set. Norman Bates would be envious.
“Foxcatcher”
★ ★ ★ ★
Starring: Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller
Directed by: Bennett Miller
Other: A Columbia Pictures release. At the Century Centre and River East in Chicago, plus the Evanston Century 18. Rated R for drug use, violence. 130 minutes