Review of Out of the Furnace (2013) by Rachel W — 10 Mar 2014

I would typically reserve a lot of praise for a movie until I had seen it more than once, but this is an exception. Out of the Furnace is a captivating character study of a "good" man from start to finish. Christian Bale plays the lead, Russell. This man, whom we can see is obviously trying his hardest to live a decent life, is thwarted left and right. His minor missteps lead to life-altering disaster, which leads to his incarceration. His girlfriend leaves him while he is locked up (their conversation when he gets out was devastatingly sad). His terminally ill father passes away, and his little brother has come back from war full of rage and trying to figure out his place in the world back in America.

Christian Bale is not my favorite actor, and I dislike Casey Affleck, but Woody Harrelson is terrifying as Harlan, the psycho drug dealer and backwoods gangster. The opening scene of the movie etches his character's traits in your mind, and every time he appears later in the movie, you think back to that scene, remembering how unstable he is.

The best part of this movie is the script. I loved the lack of explanation of parts of the plot. Time jumps while Russell is locked up, which I think makes his incarceration less powerful, but adds to the movie's exposition. Too often, screenwriters/directors feel they have to show you every detail of what happened because you are either too stupid to pick up on what happened, or they want the movie to be 3 hours long. Leave that shit out. It works a lot better this way. Be prepared to be utterly depressed, but definitely see this movie.