Out of the Furnace (2013)

....his personal concern for the sad abandoned 'Rodney' (Casey Affleck) is both authentic and truly courageous in terms of dealing with the demons who 'squat' inside Harlan (Woody Harrelson's) DeGroat.This is not a film for the squeamish. It's not so much that the violence is 'over the top' rather it is the 'spirit' and I am insistent on calling it such, the 'spirit' that hovers over the abandoned souls that live scattered over this deeply forested region of NW New Jersey and NE PA. Evil only needs a willing soul with which to incubate and begin to entangle said soul's every thought and action to the point where an entire region is slowly but steadily corrupted and then denies the level of depravity these poor damned individuals have chosen to sink to. Well done but for me - DaFoe was the true character who understood what was about to descend and, to his harm, chose to 'stand in the gap' against evil - come Lord Jesus!

This could have been shortened up into a movie with more punch, but seems to lope along nicely. Christian Bale and Casey Affleck are brothers, Bale has a man's-man job at a miniscule steel works company that seems to be put together with ticky-tacky and functioning at a scale so small one can only believe it turns out the metal fixin's for matchbox cars and toy pianos. Casey is a sometime military dude who re-ups or is re-upped to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. He tries to make money by doing anything like standing around waiting for the right numbers to drop. Or fist fighting. The story hangs together barely. Casey's character fights in what are for him fixed fights and he usually takes the dive. But although he does this more than once, he really hates to take dives. And yet his handler, a battered looking Willem Dafoe keeps using him, including in a fight co-managed by a convincingly dangerous looking Woody Harrelson. It is hard to believe that real people behave so stupidly that you want to shout at the screen, but in fact people do behave pretty stupid, so it is believable in real life, only this isn't real life this is a movie which has to be believable. I got the impression that this movie was a precursor to Manchester by the Sea which it preceded in release by 3 years, but the Casey Affleck character is the same character, a skinny man's man with major interior issues which cause him to experience major depression yet express himself violently. His movements, and that of older brother Christian Bale are played out in this long, predictable revenge story. Other characters were played by the comely Zoe Saldana and the grim, somewhat blocky appearance of Forest Whittaker. Good to see, but not really pivotal to the plot, such as it was. I don't know if the town of Braddock is real or what State it is in, but I enjoyed the industrial ruin of a small town atmospherics. Reminiscent of places I'm from that haunt me. The music was unremarkable. The story played out predictably right to the end.

Having an extremely hard time buying casey affleck as a tough guy. Why didn't they get an actual tough guy to play the part? he's such a chicken looking due I just can't believe that he could actually beat someone up or that his character in the movie survived military service. He's just so baby faced and looks like he could be knocked over with a feather.

'Out of the Furnace' shows how fine acting can temporarily conceal serious shortcomings in a film. For about twenty minutes, Christian Bale's performance suggests this tale of brotherly love and Rust Belt revenge might have somewhere to go, but the story slides swiftly into cliché and sentimentality. The introduction depicts steelworker Russell slaving at the mill, tending his dying dad and murmuring sweet nothings into his girlfriend's ear. Meanwhile his unstable Iraq-vet sibling Rodney drinks, fights and gambles himself deeper into trouble and debt. The brothers act out their relationship with good-guy Russell constantly bailing out bad-boy Rodney, as a troop of low-life villains and blue collar stalwarts wait in the wings for their cues.By the time Russell's saintly selflessness has cost him his sweetheart and a stretch in the slammer, this formulaic film has lost all credibility. While the long-suffering hero is locked up in the joint, Rodney gets out of his depth with some toothless meth-dealing hillbillies - and after Russell is released, he finds himself obliged to settle scores with the rural racketeers. After that set-up, any fool with Final Draft on his laptop could write the last half of this stale potboiler.