海角大神

In 1996, John E. du Pont, an heir to one of America鈥檚 largest fortunes, shot and killed wrestler Dave Schultz, a former gold medal Olympian who ran the wrestling training program on du Pont鈥檚 Pennsylvania estate. Du Pont, who died in prison in 2010, was ruled 鈥渘ot in his right mind,鈥� but the motive for the murder has always remained murky.

This may sound like tabloid fodder, but 鈥淔oxcatcher,鈥� directed by Bennett Miller and written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman, is an altogether extraordinary film about the psychopathology of the ties that bind, both familial and financial. It鈥檚 rare to see an American movie that explores, let alone acknowledges, the class system in this country, or one that gets so far inside the abyss of the ethic that drives so many men to succeed 鈥� and to implode when they don鈥檛.

The film鈥檚 initial focus is not Dave (Mark Ruffalo) but his brother, Mark (Channing Tatum), also a wrestling gold medalist at the 1984 Olympics. Unlike his gregarious sibling, who lives with his wife (Sienna Miller) and two children in Colorado, where he coaches, Mark lives alone in a threadbare apartment in Wisconsin crammed with trophies. To eke out a living he gives rote inspirational speeches to schoolchildren.

With his jutting jaw and thick forehead, Mark is a hulking, simianlike presence. He is almost painfully inexpressive but, when he鈥檚 wrestling, his body language has a kinesthetic force. In an early training-session scene we see Mark and Dave grappling, and everything we need to know about their relationship, with its volatile mix of loving kindness and ferocity, is right there.

Despite his accomplishments, Mark has always felt overshadowed by his celebrated older brother, who helped raise him from an early age when their parents split. This is why, when he gets a call out of the blue from du Pont (Steve Carell), who offers him a chance to set up a training center at his Foxcatcher estate, he is instantly lured.

Du Pont, the self-professed superpatriot, talks up wrestling as a higher calling 鈥� a way to reestablish America鈥檚 strength on a worldwide stage at the upcoming 1988 Olympics in Seoul. He gives Mark鈥檚 inchoate yearnings a regal imprimatur. But immediately we can see (as Mark does not) what is really going on. Du Pont, pasty and thin-voiced, with a beaked nose, is imperially creepy. He speaks in a halting cadence, but his words, even when seeming offhanded, carry a sub-zero chill. He doesn鈥檛 brook back talk.

Du Pont鈥檚 real prize is Dave, who initially balks at moving with his family to the estate. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 buy Dave,鈥� Mark tells a nonplussed du Pont. In his world, anybody can be bought, and so it is, eventually, with Dave. By the time he shows up, Mark and du Pont have already fallen out 鈥� he slapped Mark in full view of the other athletes and called him an "ungrateful ape" 鈥� and Dave鈥檚 ascendancy further drives his brother into a seething sulk.聽

鈥淔oxcatcher鈥� features a trio of extraordinary performances (a quartet if you count Vanessa Redgrave鈥檚 cameo as du Pont鈥檚 cold-eyed mother, who regards wrestling as a 鈥渓ow sport鈥�). Tatum gets at the self-loathing of a man whose professional victories are smothered by his personal anguish. Ruffalo creates a character who is exceedingly 鈥渘ormal鈥� and yet rived with passion. The tenderness Dave shows his brother over and over again, even as Mark rejects him, is the most beautiful gesture in the movie.聽

Carell, who has rarely attempted dramatic roles, so completely makes himself over as du Pont that he is almost unrecognizable. He captures the way du Pont, through steely insinuation, uses his privilege as a weapon. The filmmakers don鈥檛 specify how du Pont descended into madness 鈥� at one point he demanded to be addressed as the Dalai Lama 鈥� and so we are left to infer that his particular brand of ultra-creepiness is endemic to the very wealthy. As unfair as this may be, it works dramatically.

In 鈥淔oxcatcher,鈥� the usages of money warp everything. It鈥檚 left ambiguous whether Mark submitted sexually to du Pont, but certainly there is no ambiguity in a sequence like the one in which Dave, interviewed for a promotional video, is instructed to speak in falsely glowing terms about his 鈥渕entor.鈥� And so this proud man haltingly debases himself. It鈥檚 a great scene and a great piece of acting.聽 聽 聽 聽

The film, which states upfront that it鈥檚 鈥渂ased on true events,鈥� takes liberties with the facts of the case and overstates Mark鈥檚 furious solitude in order to play up the almost biblical fraternal angle. But the liberties serve a larger truth about human experience. 鈥淔oxcatcher鈥� doesn鈥檛 make the mistake of trying to say Something Important about America; it鈥檚 a movie about three very different men unheedingly caught in a cycle of destruction. And yet the story is so powerfully observed that it does indeed become larger than itself 鈥� an American tragedy. Grade: A (Rated R for some drug use and a scene of violence.)