Du Pont made the headlines when he murdered Dave Schultz, a former Olympics wrestler who ran the training program at the center du Pont built on his estate in Pennsylvania. The murder shocked America when after nine years of working together du Pont for no apparent reason shot Schultz.

Miller teams up again with by Dan Futterman who wrote the script for his previous film Capote based on the true life story of Truman Capote and who is joined by E. Max Frye. The team comes up with a superb screenplay that is sparse on dialogue but never loses interest throughout the 135 minutes running time of the film as it builds to its inexorable tragic ending. The story follows the relationship between the two Schultz brothers both of whom have won Olympic medals for wrestling in real life.

Mark Schultz played by Channing Tatum who has won an Olympic Gold Medal is invited by the wealthy heir John du Pont played by Steve Carell to move to his estate known as Foxcatcher where du Point wants to set up a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. At first it seems like an answer to Mark’s dreams and also offers Mark to step out of the shadow of his brother Dave played by Mark Ruffalo who has always dominated in the relationship between the two brothers with his good nature and easy way of being with people.

Mark soon comes to think of du Pont as a father figures figure and an unhealthy relationship develops between the two men as Mark grows increasingly dependent on du Point and is dazzled by the world of wealth he inhabits. Meanwhile it slowly begins to become apparent that du Pont is not entirely beneficent in his motives and that his wrestling training camp is meant to make up for other inadequacies that du Pont cannot make up for no matter how wealthy he is.

But Mark’s world begins to unravel when he realizes that du Pont would prefer him to bring his brother Dave to Foxcatcher to run the training programme. Dave who is happily married is always looking out for his brother arrives to take over the training camp and du Pont becomes fixated on Dave instead of Mark.

Miller draws stunning performances from his three actors. With the end already known in advance the film draws its tension more from “why” du Pont did it rather than the traditional “who” did it. As the emotional tension builds and du Pont’s paranoia as well as his fascination with guns becomes apparent the film keeps a tight dramatic tension between the three characters. This is a superb three hander in terms of acting. The men build their relationships through actions like taking out the aggression between the two brothers during the wrestling scenes. Ruffalo and Tatum actually studied wrestling with a coach that had worked with the two real life brothers and knew their style and moves. But it is Carell that in the end turns in the most amazing performance. With the script refusing to directly explain what drives du Pont to kill Dave it is left to Carell to convince us of inevitability of the final tragic ending through his building of the character.

The film is scheduled for a US release in the second part of 2014 and looks like it should be both a box office and an artistic success as well as potential Oscar nominations for its actors.

Credits: Foxcather (USA)

Directed by Bennett Miller

Cast: Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, Channing Tatum