Review: Out of the Furnace

Relativity Media

The first trailers for Out of the Furnace had me really excited. A small-town American story of vengeance and family starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Sam Shepard, Forrest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, and Willem Dafoe? Count me in! The settings and characters in the trailers looked like an awesome combination of the action and grittiness of Justified mixed with the sentimental, realistic portrayal of an old-fashioned, American life-style hearkening back to The Deer Hunter and following on the tale of a similar setting in Mud.

What's more, Out of the Furnace is director/writer Scott Cooper's follow up to his 2009 debut, Crazy Heart, which Cooper wrote, directed, and produced and starred Jeff Bridges and won Bridges the best actor Oscar. Out of the Furnace seemed to be heading in the same direction as Crazy Heart with intense characters, but this time around with more violence and a lot more at stake. The all-star cast also suggested hopes for Oscar season attention.

Relativity Media

Unfortunately, the combination of such awesome talent did not result in the power and effect I hoped it would. All the actors do a fine job. Harrelson is convincingly gross, sadistic, and evil as the bad guy, Harlan Degroat, and Bale is grim and mysterious as usual as Russell Baze trying to preserve what family and life he has left. Specifically, Russell is trying to guide and save his troubled, war veteran brother, Rodney (Affleck). It seems as if Cooper ended up having too much talent on the screen and has a hard time balancing out all of the characters. Especially the likes of Dafoe, Whitaker, and Shepard who do not receive very much screen time and are excellent actors in their own right.

Instead, the majority of the attention is drawn to the events unfolding in the story instead of the awesome cast. Even though Harrelson does a fine job, we've seen scary, white trash/hill people before in the likes of Winter's Bone and Justified. Similarly, we've seen messed up Iraqi war veterans before even though Affleck does his best, but he doesn't get enough development as a character in the end. At the same time, Cooper hints at the struggles facing such small-town life such as the steel mill where Russell and his family has worked for decades shutting down and such, but he does not take advantage of such themes either and work them into a larger raison d'etre for the film.

Relativity Media

In Crazy Heart, Cooper did an excellent job of capturing the struggles and life of a single character in Bridges' "Bad" Blake. With Out of the Furnace, Cooper tries to tackle a much larger set of characters, struggles, and issues at hand, and it becomes too much to handle. Thankfully, the cast is still good enough to carry the film and make for some intense scenes. Bale especially is as good as ever. The friend I saw the film with mentioned how she read a review that compared him to "a Bruce Springsteen song come to life," and that is very true. From his goatee, long hair, and silent, tough-hero mentality, Bale is all American. There are definitely moments where you can sense the turmoil inside of Russell due to things that happen in the film (to which I'll give no spoilers) and that is thanks to Bale's acting. Yet, you never quite get a sufficient glimpse into his character to understand him like you did "Bad" Blake.

That all being said, Out of the Furnace is a respectable attempt at branching out for Cooper. It doesn't do a whole lot for the careers of its actors outside of Bale and Harrelson, but it makes for some entertaining viewing even if it does leave you wanting more at the end.