The Good: the cast is simply great all-around. Steve Carell, nearly unrecognizable in prosthetics and makeup, is creepy and twisted as the truly strange character of John E. du Pont. At turns manipulative, creepy, charming, childlike and charismatic, Carell turns in a career-changing performance. Honestly, I never would have thought that he had this type of performance in him, and I'm truly excited to see where the next act of Carell's career takes us. Former model and pretty boy Channing Tatum continues his evolution into serious and quality actor, as his depiction of Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz is brooding and simply great. As du Pont manipulates this great and underappreciated athlete into his personal lemming and whipping boy, we see the change reflected in Tatum, as Schultz's brooding turns self-destructive. But the true highlight of this film is Mark Ruffalo as Mark Schultz's brother, Dave. The more self-assured and successful of the brothers, Dave Schultz was the star of the U.S. wrestling program, and Ruffalo's performance is understated, charming, and completely anchors the film. If he would have won Best Supporting Actor for his performance, no one would have batted an eye. The plot meanders, with Bennett clearly preferring to "show" rather than "tell", and while that may seem random at times, I feel it makes the entire enterprise feel unsettling and adds to the impending sense of dread underlying the film. This is basically a horror movie masquerading as a drama, and as such, Bennett Miller makes a lot of interesting choices with the color and tone of the film that really make the whole thing feel like a modern American noir. (Not unlike Capote in that way)
The Bad: Carell's makeup and prosthetics aren't great, and were frankly a little distracting at times. His performance was outstanding, but it seems odd that in 2015 we aren't able to make better makeup to create the illusion of a person looking differently than they actually do while also still like a human being. The film is a little longer than I'd have preferred, and tends to jump around in ways that can be a little confusing. For instance, it's difficult to tell that years have passed between the '88 Olympics and the crime itself. While it's not necessarily difficult to follow, it can be a little jarring.
Ultimately, this is the tale of a modern American tragedy told through three central performances that all rise above the typical work of the actors involved. For Carell and Tatum, this film represents a significant step forward in their work as actors, and for the always quality Ruffalo, this film represents a career highlight. The best word I can use to describe this film is creepy. It's unsettling, and uncompromising in the way it depicts mental illness, manipulation, and the tragedy of this story. You're definitely going to feel like you need to take a shower afterwards, but for the quality of its performances, the artistry of the filmmaking and the genre-bending and unique story, it's wholly worth watching. How many other prestige true-crime wrestling dramas would someone have the guts to turn into an Oscar contender?
8/10
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