How a member of one of America’s richest families comes to murder an American Olympic star is one of the strangest tales ever told and even with the liberties taken with time lines and some of the actions on screen, the story remains true to life and true to being very bizarre.

Almost unrecognizable under make up and facial prophesises, Steve Carell as John Eleuthère du Pont drops the dry funny man stick and delivers the performance of his career, albeit a very creepy one. From his first frame to his last, he fills the screen with a sense of dread and odd demeanour. du Pont, a member of one of America’s richest families (a fortune initially made through the sale of gun powder) is surrounded by yes men and the privileges of wealth.

du Pont is a fan of wrestling, not the flashy show biz variety but of the form called Freestyle Wrestling, one of the two styles practiced in the Olympics. He comes in contact with the Schultz brothers, Mark and Dave (played by Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo) and gets them to join his obsession with the sport. He wealth allows him to provide training facilities and a lifestyle that the two brothers could have only dreamed about in their youth.

The film compresses the real life story of almost a decade down to a matter of years and keeps the dread at the forefront. This oppressive structure is kept intact the entire film and as such it’s a very powerful experience but not a particularly fun one. For those seeking light and frivolous entertainment, perhaps best to look elsewhere but for those that want to share time with a group of actors working at their highest level telling a story so bizarre it almost defies belief, don’t miss Foxcatcher.

Rob Hudson
www.sonyclassics.com/foxcatcher

Film history is littered with movies that are so bad they become good. There are the unintentionally hilarious ones, the ones with such low production values, the ones with such over the top acting they never let you off the hook and then there is Mortdecai. This vehicle about a shonky art dealer starring Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ewan McGregor is one of the worst received movies in recent times, but is it so bad it’s good?

Depp plays Mortdecai; a fey British art dealer with a flexible attitude towards the law and Gwyneth Paltrow plays his posh wife. Ewan McGregor plays a police officer and is the sort of straight man in the piece. The script is based on the novel Don’t Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli and is so over the top and filled with so much strange idiosyncratic British behaviour, it just challenges you not to snicker.

But here is the rub, as bad as it is, it actually has some genuinely funny moments and even though they may be at the expense of that perceived British upper crust life style, they are still funny. The Brits are going to love to hate this. Unfortunately there are not enough of these moments to sustain the entire 107-minute running time and the film induces as many groans as laughs.

Will the years be kind to this film? I don’t really think so and it’s life at the box office will probably be a short one, so if there’s an interest don’t delay. Are the chances good that this will become a new generation’s Plan 9 From Outer Space? It may be strange to use this word in this review but the film is actually too good to be that bad (but barely).

Rob Hudson
www.mortdecaithemovie.com