Review of Out of the Furnace (2013) by Ben S — 04 Feb 2014

A thoroughly unremarkable, gruff Americana thriller that collects a sensationally talented cast - including Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Williem Dafoe, Sam Shepard and Forest Whitaker - and then proceeds to do nothing with them that we haven't seen on screen many times before. In what is ostensibly the tale of two brothers heading in different directions, Russell (Bale) is an arrow-straight steelworker attempting to piece his life back together after an unfortunate stint in jail, while his younger brother Rodney (Affleck) is a hot-headed soldier left directionless after his tour in Afghanistan. Lured into the easy money of underground fights by the slimy John Petty (Dafoe) and with the call of bigger cash he winds up crossing paths with a psychotic clan of rednecks run by Harlan DeGroat (Harrelson) who operate a lawless drug-fuelled society in their remote mountain home. To save his brother, Russell is ultimately drawn into a fight that isn't his.

Work boots, neck tats and dive bars are all present and correct - and although it undoubtedly has its captivating moments of masculine pride and desperation, the formulaic faux parable of flat characters swiftly passes into obscurity. Taking itself very seriously, it hulks around with a brooding expression on its face whilst the overwrought score tells you exactly what to feel, with director Scott Cooper attempting to drag several social issues into the drama to imitate weight - the armed forces and the decline of American industry both feature - but it all just rings a little hollow.

Casey Affleck is one of my favourite actors (and gets a lifetime pass for his work in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) and has several striking moments of raw power, as do most of the cast. But predictability and conformity prevent the movie being more than a run of impressive moments that have been copied and pasted from countless others in the genre. It's the kind of broad film where two brothers are literally driving in opposite directions to illustrate their differences in one scene, and as Rodney steps into an underground bare knuckle fight, Russell is out hunting, lining up a buck in his rifle sight but simply hasn't got the heart to pull the trigger. Being as obvious as all hell isn't necessarily a criticism - there is a place for undemanding genre movies, and Out of the Furnace is entertaining, meaty stuff - but with the incredible actors involved and the always alluring run-down Rust Belt setting, the overriding sensation is of slight disappointment. Taking precisely zero risks, its biggest crime is just being very ordinary.

Take last year's Prisoners for example: it had an A-list cast (Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal) in a big generic child abduction thriller, but it was executed with an inspired poetic darkness while retaining a compulsive plot and mainstream appeal. It's always slightly cruel to judge a film on what it might have been. But during Out of the Furnace I couldn't relax into its world because of the nagging thought, "This should be so much better.".