Steve Carell generates buzz in Cannes with 'Foxcatcher'

FJI's Cannes correspondent J. Sperling Reich reports on Steve Carell's surprising dramatic role in the new film from the director of Moneyball.

Please note: Foxcatcher is based on a true story. If you are unfamiliar with the incidents the film depicts, be aware that this article reveals key plot points.

Last September, Sony Pictures Classics surprised everyone by pushing back the release date of Foxcatcher by nearly a year. With the success of director Bennett Miller's previous film, Moneyball, the Oscar buzz swirling around Foxcatcher had just begun to build. The move would mean that Foxcatcher would miss out on last year's awards season, though after it was roundly praised by critics following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this week, that may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

One of the more eagerly anticipated selections in Cannes this year (alongside entries from David Cronenberg and Belgium's Dardenne Brothers), Foxcatcher was given a prime programming slot in the middle of the festival. The film tells the true and ultimately tragic story of freestyle wrestler and Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz, who is plucked out of a grim existence by John du Pont, heir to the international chemical company which bears his families name.

A self-proclaimed wrestling aficionado, du Pont brings Mark, played by Channing Tatum, to his estate outside Philadelphia to train for the 1988 Olympics. The enormous estate, named Foxcatcher, is dominated by du Pont's mansion and his aging mother's prized thoroughbred horses. It also houses an athletic facility specifically built by du Pont to train an Olympic wrestling team.

As the story progresses, Mark forms a paternal relationship with du Pont, played by Steve Carell in his most serious role to date. Carell's du Pont is a complicated and insecure man with a patriotic love for America and all its history. Yet, du Pont always seems a little distant and mentally unstable. When Mark begins to struggle with his training, du Pont brings in the wrestler's older brother, Dave, portrayed by Mark Ruffalo, who is also an Olympic gold medalist in the sport.

The preparations for production of Foxcatcher mirrored the training wrestlers would undertake to compete in the Olympics. Tatum and Ruffalo immersed themselves in wrestling, spending upwards of six months practicing with some of the sport's top athletes. "Mark and I both have cauliflower ears as take-home presents from it and bad knees," recounted Tatum. "It was definitely something that gets into your body in a good way."

Ruffalo's character initially resists the temptation, and large paycheck, of joining his younger brother at Foxcatcher to coach a U.S. wrestling team alongside du Pont, who knows little about wrestling and even less about coaching. This theme, that eventually anyone can be bought, is an undercurrent that runs throughout the film.

"What happens to talent when its for sale or it an be acquired by a price?" Ruffalo asked rhetorically. "There's those moments that these people have, really, really talented people who can't really do what they do best in the world unless they can figure out a way to monetize it. But it costs them and it costs their talent a great deal." It is hard not to wonder if Ruffalo, who made a name for himself starring in small independent movies, might be referring to himself, given his recent appearance in blockbusters such as The Avengers.

The story of John du Pont and his relationship with the Schultz brothers does not have a happy ending. In 1996, in the throes of mental illness, du Pont shot Dave Schultz three times, killing him. The film presents the killing exactly as it occurred in real life: in Schultz's driveway in front of his wife and the du Pont estate's head of security. Du Pont was ultimately convicted of murder the following year and spent the last 13 years of his life in prison.

If this kind of ripped-from-the-headlines tale doesn't help Foxcatcher build audience awareness, there is no doubt Carell's performance as du Pont is likely to do so. The final credits were still rolling during the film's first screening in Cannes when whisperings of an Oscar nomination for the actor could be heard.

Though Carell may be best, perhaps only, known for his comedic roles, Miller didn't hesitate in casting him as du Pont. "It obviously doesn't resemble anything he had done before and I will tell you it was so far outside of his comfort zone," Miller admitted. "We met and we just talked about the character, and truthfully I had never seen Steve do anything that would give any material evidence that he could do this, but we just chatted and I heard how he thought and was thinking about the character. I just thought he could do it and he will commit himself to doing it. It might hurt, but it will get there."

Carell doesn't understand what all the fuss is about in regards to his playing a role in a film which has absolutely no humorous moments. According to the actor, he did nothing different for Foxcatcher than he would for any of the other films in which he's appeared. "It's really the same approach you take to a comedy," he said. "Because I don't think characters in films know that they are in a comedy or a drama. I think that they are just characters in films. The same applied to this. I didn't approach it as a drama necessarily, it was just a story and a character within that story."

If the initial response Foxcatcher and Carell's performance received here in Cannes is any indication, that character may keep him quite busy come Oscar time.