Quite a fine collection of relics you got there — Sam Shepard, Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker … oh, and geez, Willem Dafoe, too! Was “Grizzled” the working title here? There are times in which I wonder why I’m watching a movie. What brought me here? What brought me to a point where I’ve actually chosen to spend time with Willem Dafoe as the well-meaning bookie, and Woody Harrelson channeling Deliverance. It’s not that Out of the Furnace is without merit, but “why?” comes to mind.
Woody Harrelson plays a backwoods kingpin who spends 100% of his time beating people up, threatening to beat people up or betting on thugs beating one another up. It’s not the rile of a lifetime. Back in civilization, Christian Bale is a blue collar stiff constantly being the big brother Casey Affleck needs. Awwwww. See, Rodney (Affleck) is a screw up. He hasn’t yet mastered throwing a fight properly, which means he bare-knuckle boxes not just for the pure fun of it, but to get deeper in debt. You know this leads back to Woody, right? Oh, goody, all roads lead to 
Redneck.
The most poignant moment in the film has, essentially, nothing to do with the plot. Russell (Bale) gets sent upriver on a DWI/manslaughter. His live-in girl Lena (Zoe Saldana) is conspicuously absent at Russell’s new temp housing facility. When he does emerge months later, she is no longer his girl. Through a teary-eyed affection refusal, Lena admits she’s pregnant by a man she loves less than Russell. It’s a tragic moment in the film and yet, it is even more tragic that this moment means nothing within the conflict. Let me check that — she takes up with the Police Chief (Whitaker) … he’s at odds with Russell, but they both have the same objective … I suppose it gives Russell some guilt leeway to administer his own justice but, really, um, nope. That could have been accomplished by a long-term relationship between the two men; this was the most powerful moment in Out of the Furnace and it meant nothing.
I’m still left wondering what the point of this exercise was. Some insight into hillbilly thuggery? Perhaps a different look into Batman. Batman with a DWI is kinda cute, huh? It’s more like an Iron Man thing. Of course, there was no humor in this moment … or the film for that matter. Few films that open with a drive-in beating and then a trip to a mill town OTB seem to indulge in tomfoolery. Go figure. For the vast majority of the noted cast, this will be the other film he/she made in 2013 … and it shows. The plot was crystal clear, the message and metaphorical title … less.
Batman lives blue collar in Allentown
His Army brother is quite the clown
The backwoods tussle
Won’t mar American Hustle
You can’t keep a superhero down
Rated R, 116 Minutes
D: Scott Cooper
W: Brad Ingelsby, Scott Cooper
Genre: Mining town dumbassery
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Rural thugs
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: “That’s not Batman!”
