OUT OF THE FURNACE – The Review

Time to retreat from the bright, twinkly lights and good cheer of the holiday season and fall into the grim world of film noir. But we’re not traveling back to the time of big sedans and even bigger fedoras. That’s the era that first inspired that phrase with classics like DETOUR, D.O.A., and GUN CRAZY. They, in turn, inspired several modern-day full color tributes beginning in the 1980’s with BODY HEAT to ONE FALSE MOVE. OUT OF THE FURNACE is set over the last few years, but instead of a bustling metropolis its backdrop is a dying small Pennsylvania town. And the big scores aren’t jewelry stores and banks, it’s crack and meth. While the flick’s in color, the mood is just as dark as in those old black and whites. Very, very dark.

For most of film noir thrillers, the main hero is just an honest, regular guy who’s been knocked around by fate. That’s the case with Russell Baze (Christian Bale) who works at a steel mill in rural Pennsylvania. He’s living with the gorgeous Lena (Zoe Saldana) and is a good son to his dying father and his brother Rodney (Casey Affleck). While in between stints in Iraq, Rodney gambles too much, which gets him involved in the world of underground fighting matches. Before he can step in to help his little brother, Russell’s world is turned upside down because of a fatal accident. When he returns from a prison stretch, his pop has passed, his gal has taken up with Wesley, the police chief (Forest Whitaker), and Rodney is still fighting for money. But he needs more and convinces his manager John (Willem Dafoe) to contact the guy behind the big money matches held a couple hundred miles away. But John is leery of dealing with this big money fight organizer, a cruel backwoods drug kingpin named Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson). When John and Rodney go missing, law enforcement authorities seem ineffectual and Russell has no choice but to join forces with his Uncle ‘Red” (Sam Shepard) and seek justice.

While Bale has a tendency to take the slighty off-kilter character roles when he’s not the Dark Knight, his Russell is a decent, plain-spoken everyman. He enjoys the simple pleasures of cruising with his ‘bro’ and waking up next to his gal, This helps us sympathize with him when the world seems against him. And it amps up the suspense when this good man must plunge into the ugly underworld. He’s not seen the darkness that his vet brother has endured. Affleck plays Rodney as a young man trying to keep a lid on his anger and outrage. Unfortunately this seeps into his choices as a brawler. His inner demons won’t allow him to give up and take a dive. It’s a performance of raw vitality particularly in a confrontation with Bale. Harrelson also brings a lot of raw energy to the throughly repellant Harlan, but the character is often written as a cartoonishly evil, hair-trigger thug. While James Franco brought a sense of whimsy to his drug-dealin’ baddie in HOMEFRONT, there’s not a spec of humor (or humanity) to this scowling monster. Perhaps Harrelson thought this would be a nice change of pace, but his considerable talents are not put to good use with this creep. Saldana is also not given a whole lot to work with as the former love interest. We see that she still cares for Russell, but her leaving him is left largely a mystery. As Saldana’s new beau, Whitaker just pops up to glare at Bale and try to keep him away from vengeance with gravely voiced warnings (he’s almost doing Bale’s old Batman growl). Shepard is his usually strong, grayed warrior similar to his role in MUD. Russell couldn’t ask for another mentor or partner than Uncle Red.

This is the second feature directed by Scott Cooper (who also co-wrote it) after his acclaimed debut with CRAZY HEART, which nabbed Jeff Bridges a well-deserved Oscar. This may be the reason why such a high-powered cast signed on despite this somewhat derivative script. Dafoe, Saldana, and Whitaker really have slightly expanded cameo roles that are not much of a challenge. Underwritten may be the correct phrase, while the Harrelson role is perhaps overwritten to the point of “showboating”(did we really need the opening drive-in scene to establish what a maniac this guy is?). Cooper gives a good sense of the desperate, dying rural town, but this was also the case in the much-superior WINTER’S BONE. He’s trying for some of the lyrical qualities of THE DEER HUNTER, while delivering lots of grindhouse-style mayhem. In other words, it’s too “arty” for the action crowd and too sledge-hammer violent for the cultured cinephiles. While trying to straddle that film fence, OUT OF THE FURNACE never really finds its footing.

3 Out of 5