Foxcatcher is so far from what you would expect from ' a film about wrestling': it is a beautifully-wrought, subdued and elegiac film, which makes the sad true-life ending even more powerful and shocking. Metaphors are simple but expertly placed (the opening practice wrestle silently laying out the entire ensuing story, or releasing the horses, for example), the juxtaposition of intimate body-contact sport with the lack of emotional communication plays strongly throughout, together with the use of detached extra-long shots all add up to create a thoughtful and sombre tone. Carell is deservedly getting plaudits for a thorough and transformative characterisation, but equally deserving of praise is Channing Tatum's wonderful scalpel-fine and deeply sympathetic character work. There is interesting ambiguity to some events and motivations, and the big themes of patriotism and the death of the American Dream are handled well. Foxcatcher is a considered and very well-made dramatization of an extraordinary real story.
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