Foxcatcher Family Review

U.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John Du Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to the Du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the poverty stricken situation Olympic caliber athletes like he and his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). Driven by hidden needs, Du Pont sees backing Schultz's bid for Gold and the chance to "coach" a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Trapped in Du Pont's majestic but suffocating world, Mark comes to see his benefactor as an egotistical, arrogant, and selfish megalomaniac and grows increasingly contemptuous. Though initially supportive, Du Pont's mercurial personality turns and he begins to lure Mark into an unhealthy lifestyle that threatens to undermine his training. Soon Du Pont's erratic behavior and threatening psychological game-play begin to erode the athlete's environment, stability, and motivation. Meanwhile Du Pont becomes fixated on Dave, who exudes the confidence Du Pont lacks. Du Pont eventually realizes he is unable to buy the respect he so desperately desires from the world's greatest wrestlers. Fueled by Du Pont's increasing paranoia and alienation from the brothers, the trio is propelled towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen.—Sony Pictures ClassicsDave Schultz and Mark Schultz are brothers, Olympic gold medal winning wrestlers (both from the Soviet-bloc boycotted 1984 Olympics), and training partners. As the older who had earlier success, Dave has always been the leader between the two, Mark largely in his shadow, even in his own successes which are seen largely as Dave's doing. In 1987, Mark is recruited by fifty year old John du Pont - of the chemical company du Ponts - to train under his tutelage at his family's estate, Foxcatcher, which du Pont would use as the name for his camp of athletes. Despite not knowing anything about du Pont, Mark is convinced largely out of John's sense of nationalism and seeming pride for the sport, greater public exposure which he feels would give Mark and the sport the glory they so rightly deserve, especially in the United States. In addition, du Pont would largely give Mark free reign to choose his training partners. Dave is offered the same deal through Mark, but turns it down as he does not want to uproot his family to move to the Foxcatcher estate in Pennsylvania. du Pont sees himself as a Renaissance man and philanthropist, his other interests including ornithology, about which he is a published author, philately, and being a freestyle wrestler in his own right. In the short term, Mark, Dave and John all have the same goal: Mark winning the 1987 World Championship and the gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. Despite they having these same goals, other priorities for what they are doing, especially du Pont's, would tear the relationship between the three apart, most specifically as du Pont feels like he is loosing control in front of a worldwide audience, which is all the more important seeing as to his relationship with his mother, Jean du Pont.—HuggoDocudrama about millionaire John Du Pont (Steve Carell) and his relationship with brothers Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum), Olympic gold-medal wrestlers who train at his estate. Mark initially idolizes Du Pont, but slowly realizes the depths of his benefactor's madness.