So I just watched Foxcatcher recently, I know, another late viewing, but better late than never!
I had pretty high hopes going into it. I heard that Steve Carell was awesome in it, I mean, the makeup work on his face was incredible! And even watching the trailers for it gave me goosebumps, like when he walked into the gym with the pistol, I was like, “Ahhh watch out!!”
But after watching it, I was a little let down. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, I thought it was well done and for the most part the acting was great, and it was a very intense true story, but I felt that the movie was very slow, a bit boring at times. I felt that maybe they could have written a more upbeat soundtrack that could have carried the slow parts better.
I loved the story though, it’s pretty crazy. The heir to one of the richest families in the US, John E. Du Pont (Steve Carell), wants to coach wrestling for the 1988 Olympics, so he hires athletes to live on his estate, Foxcatcher Farms, and train, one of them being Channing Tatum’s character Mark Schultz. John slowly starts to become more paranoid and reclusive, especially after his mother dies. He becomes obsessed with coaching wrestling and with Mark. He convinces Mark’s older brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) to come to Foxcatcher Farms and coach for him, which makes Mark jealous. The situation continues to get worse as John ignores Mark and becomes infatuated with Dave, but when Dave starts to question John’s authority, John becomes jealous, and with the climactic scene, John ends the struggle.
Overall I liked it, but again, it was slow at times, and the music didn’t help. So it wasn’t a huge winner in my books, more like a 3 and a half out of 5 stars.
The Qualmist 