Foxcatcher

First Hit:  Well-acted with a long slow buildup to a disconnected ending by a disconnected person.

John E. du Pont (Steve Carell) lives deeply in the shadow of his mother Jean (Vanessa Redgrave), his family, and the family name.

Having never had to work at doing anything for survival he longs to be connected to something, something that gives him a sense of being a man. He thinks himself a patriot and significant contributor to society. The reality is different – it is the name that is famous.

The question I kept asking myself throughout the film was, was he simply a grossly odd individual, or did he have full mental capacity? When you watch some scenes he comes across as either one or the other -  but you don’t really know. I think that is part of the point of the film, not knowing.

What does stand out is that he is completely shielded by money – his family money – nothing he actually earned. He gloms onto the wrestling Schultz brothers who both won Olympic Gold medals in the 1984 games. He does this because he sees an opportunity to finance this sport and these guys to additional greatness as well as his own notoriety. He wants to be seen.

Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) and younger brother Mark (Tatum Channing) are close brothers and great wrestlers. Mark is plodding, not socially adept, but learns wrestling well from his brother and therefore only moderately succeeds. Dave is a brilliant wrestling strategist and coach. Although Mark cannot convince Dave to join duPont’s Foxcatcher team, he decides to live and practice at the Foxcatcher wrestling facility, at du Pont’s home, in Pennsylvania.

du Pont thinks he has become a coach, motivator and mentor of young Mark but in reality he knows nothing about the sport and just supplies the money. The convincingly twisted relationship he builds with Mark is meant to break the bond between the brothers. Mark’s wrestling goes south because of du Pont’s influence (drugs and arrogance) and when the writing was on the wall for the Foxcatcher team, du Pont convinces Dave to come coach the team.

One of the most telling scenes, is when Jean comes to the wrestling facility and John decides to pretend to be the coach. It is a moment where he really begins to see his failings as a human being. The shots of du Pont’s land and the wrestling are effective.

Carell is an oddly disturbing du Pont. I know nothing of the real person so I can only wonder, could the du Pont Carell created by Carell do the deeds as shown? Yes, Carell made the brooding, icy stares and halting rambling speeches convincing. Ruffalo was really good as the smart, very engaged coach and brother to Mark. Channing was good to great. I found it hard for me to believe he survived on his limited social skills, but as a wrestler I thought he was great. Redgrave was perfect as the mother who told her son, “wrestling is a low sport…”. E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman wrote the script that had some interesting lines and others that were funny but maybe not meant to be funny. Bennett Miller directed this film. Some of the shots of the wrestling and land around Foxcatcher were fantastic, however the story plodded.

Overall:  Despite its failings as a film and it being too long in telling the story, I was intrigued to learn more about this event where a rich man kills a wrestling coach.

The Whistleblower

First Hit:  This was a dark powerful film which pulls few punches.

This film is based on a true story of Kathryn Bolkovac (played by Rachel Weisz) who was a Nebraska police woman looking for a way to make more money so that she could move to be closer to her children who lived in Florida with her ex-husband.

To do this she takes a job with a company that's contracted with the UN to monitor the governmental transition of Bosnia from the racially and religious wars that raked the country in the mid 1990’s. Bolkovac soon discovers that the forces which were there to keep the peace and provide some law and order were uniformly trafficking in young girls for prostitution from other eastern bloc countries.

Not only were the UN forces using and raping these young women, they were also making money from them through the trafficking. Bolkovac in pain because she lost her own daughter in a custody battle, decides this is where she will make her stand. She goes all out to help these girls.

The scenes of the bars, where the girls are held and auctioned off, were ghastly and the treatment by their keepers was horrible and disgraceful to humanity. That the UN, a powerful body which is relied upon by other countries did no due diligence on the contractors they hired was shameful. It makes me wonder today about the contractors being hired by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This film is powerful and not an easy one to sit through. It’s story, direction and strong characters create a compelling and difficult story to digest.

Weisz is powerful and up to the requirements of the role. The intensity of her character as portrayed through both her bodily and energetic language on the screen is amazing. Vanessa Redgrave as Madeleine Rees, a diplomatic official of the US was strong. And all the girls including Roxana Condurache as Raya, Paula Schramm as Luba deserve honor for creating a horrific and realistic set of scenes which drove the point home. In fact 4 people sitting in front of me left the theater during some of their scenes. Larysa Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote this powerful script from film consultant Kathryn Bolkovac. While Kondracki also directed this cast in a difficult but outstanding story.

Overall: This film is difficult to watch at times, but the message is powerful.

Atonement

First Hit: This is wonderful, thoughtful and elegantly written, acted, and photographed film.

The story is about a young girl named Briony, initially played by Saoirse Ronan, who sees a series of events which hurt her 13 year old feelings and in the misinterpretation of these events she knowingly implicates her sister’s lover Robbie (James McAvoy) in a case of assault and rape (although the charges are never clear).

She does this because her young confused heart is hurt. Her sister Cecilia, played by Keira Knightley, tells Robbie she loves him and will wait for him as he is being carted off to prison. However, he is given a choice of serving his country as a soldier in WWII instead of doing his prison time, which he chooses to do. He and Cecilia stay in contact via letters and it is through these letters you sense the depthness of their love for each other.

As Robbie travels to Dunkirk after losing many in his platoon we witness the devastation of Dunkirk and it gives us a great sense of the suffering the English Army took at this beachhead.

I was entranced with the characters and felt their feelings as I traveled through the film. There are three actresses that play Briony.

Besides Saoirse, there is Romola Garai (As the 18 year old), and Vanessa Redgrave as the 70 year old author who has written a book called “Atonement” which is her way to give Cecilia and Robbie the life they never had together.

The writing in this film is poetic and given the quality of the acting the story comes alive by intermixing some old film footage.

The direction was excellent and Joe Wright effectively uses the technique of letting the audience go through a couple of scenes twice, from two different viewpoints, to better understand how a scene affects each character differently in the expanded scene.

Editing of this film was also superb and created a great flow. The acting all the main characters was excellent. Keira and James were especially believable as their chemistry was sizzling and I continue to look forward to films to which they are attached.

Overall: This was an excellent film and deserves to be considered for awards.