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Foxcatcher review: Awards beckon for Channing Tatum's mesmerising performance in devastating wrestling drama

Mirror film critic David Edwards is full of praise for the actor's bravura display in a superb drama

After a long and sometimes difficult birth, Channing Tatum emerges as a serious talent thanks to his mesmerising portrayal of a pro wrestler in this quietly devastating drama.

Awards surely beckon.

The Magic Mike star is top US grappler Mark Schultz, who accepts an unlikely but lucrative offer to train at the home of squillionaire John du Pont (Steve Carell) ahead of the 1988 Olympics.

Soon Mark, his brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and the rest of Team Foxcatcher have moved onto the estate where their benefactors motivations become alarmingly clear his state of mind less so.

Director Bennett Miller keeps the unsettling mood on simmer until the film based on a true story boils over into shocking violence.

Despite the pedigree of the cast, which also includes Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller, its very much Tatums film.

With cauliflower ears, a lumbering stoop and a slack jaw, he possesses the size and gait of a performing bear, and the same sense of deep but uncomprehending unhappiness.

Carell is also better than ever as the eccentric and deeply damaged man with mummy issues.

With his crooked nose held permanently aloft, it takes a while to realise its Evan Almighty buried beneath the make-up.

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