Foxcatcher - a showcase for acting?

So I rented Foxcatcher because it's one of those films that the movie world told that that I 'had' to see.  Not really sure what any of it was about, which if I am to believe the hype is the best way to enjoy it.  Here Channing Tatum plays Mark Schultz, a US wrestler who won a gold medal during the LA Olympics in 1984, and Mark Ruffalo plays his brother David, who also won gold.  The film tells the tale of how the brothers were persuaded to train under the tutelage of eccentric millionaire John Du Pont, the heir to the Du Pont chemical empire, and how their relationships with each other broke down over the course of the years.

This is a film that's little more than a showcase for acting talents.  Steve Carell plays Du Pont, a man who's eccentric behaviour and attachment to his mother have stunted his social development in a world that should be his playpen.  Essentially it's about the American upper classes.  Du Pont is the heir to an empire, and as such should have the world at his feet.  Instead he is miserable, psychologically stunted and only capable of forming relationships by throwing his money around.  I'm sure stories like this have more resonance in the US, but over here in the UK our upper classes operate in a different way.  Over here it's all about privilege and secrete codes and behaviours that signal one class over the other; a film that's a study of a character who has nothing more than his money going for him and never grew up - well it doesn't really do anything for someone like me.

Add to this the fact that Foxcatcher is incredibly slow-paced and I can't really say I enjoyed my experience.  I can see what they were trying to do here, but I think they dropped the ball by going too far down the film-as-art route.  This isn't a film that needed sloth and time staring out of a window, it's a film that needed to focus a little more on the US culture of 'money wins' that it's trying to analyse.  Admittedly it does do that, but ultimately I just don't think this is a subject that required a film.

At best it showcases a couple of actors in roles you don't normally expect to see them.  Tatum usually plays the tough dufus and Carell has never done anything other than comedy.  That in itself might be enough to bother, but I'm not convinced.  At its worst it's a painfully slow depiction of a character who that isn't really that interesting.  Take care when choosing to watch this film.