This crude sports drama based on the true incidents is about the famous Olympic Wrestler brothers, one of whom gets offered a job to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics, by the blue-blooded multimillionaire sponsor, and when the brothers reunite, things take an ugly turn.
Plot: David Schultz, the older of the Olympic brothers, has all the spotlight and has managed to settle down to a happy and successful life, whereas, his younger brother, Mark is barely able to survive under the shadow of his brother’s fame. Multimillionaire John du Pont’s offer comes as a blessing to Mark as he immediately agrees to move to the John du Pont State and build up a team for the 1988 Olympics. Soon John’s intentions change and degrade down to just psychologically torturing Mark, which attracts the most gruesome and heartless climax of the movie.
The movie had brilliant performances by Steve Carrel,
Channing Tatum
and also
Mark Ruffalo
, who have magnified each and every personality trait of their characters in such an intense way that it gives the movie a very raw feel. The movie is made with a very little suspense or excitement, but the steady pace at which the scenes unfold is very gripping and magnetic. There is no unnecessary distracting background score to lift the grim mood of the movie. It almost seems like the opposite of positive and victorious sports movies like “
Rocky
”, where the prospect of the main sports character may not seem very bright in the beginning, but his fortune slowly evolves into something more triumphant as he comes across inspirational experiences. Such is not the case, as the millionaire John du Pont’s aim is not to groom and launch the star wrestler brother in a positive light, but to twist them and use them for completely his personal motives. It is very gruesome how the mind of this millionaire works and how his intentions go completely unforeseen by the wrestler brother and hence making it easier for them to fall prey to it.
It is a very slow and downbeat watch as the viewers can sympathize with the definite but underplayed link between the two brothers who are torn apart from each other before they could apprehend the strong connection between them that came from growing up together in the face of childhood trauma. The bone-chilling performance of Stever Carrel as John du Pont would attract some aggressive negative feelings for him, as he plays the role of the ruthless exploiter.
Verdict: To this grim movie about the deeply tragic and real story of the Olympic Wrestler brother under the cruel manipulation of the millionaire sponsor, I give this movie 3 out of 5 victories.