3 stars out of 5
Here in New Jersey, we are sick and tired of being stereotyped in popular culture for our “wannabe mafioso.” The state has so much more to offer. So kudos to Out of the Furnace for finally setting the record straight: We are also home to mountain trash!
As for the movie itself, I was getting a little nervous during the trailers beforehand. Two different upcoming gladiator movies? Sheesh. But also, trailers are supposed to complement the feature presentation. Wasn’t I about to see a drama from the writer/director of Crazy Heart, an honorable mention on my Best of 2009 list? So why all the Colosseum nonsense and also Need for Speed which apparently does not star the late Paul Walker?
Trailers don’t lie. This starts out as a drama and then slowly devolves into a revenge flick. It’s never bad, but it’s also never great.
Though we do get some hot Jersey action, our main characters are based in Braddock, PA, a dying steel community. (I wondered which decade the movie was occuring in until I saw somebody with a smartphone.) Christian Bale is once again in low-mumble mode, but it generally works for his character—he’s a mill worker trying to hold things together, while keeping an eye on his Iraq-vet fuckup of a brother, Casey Affleck.
If up to this point it sounds like a rejected Springsteen lyric, director/co-writer Scott Cooper does his best to keep things legit. The grey western-Pennsylvania setting has a very real feel to it, and there are some particularly nice camera angles. Cooper is developing as a director, even if he has Boardwalk Empire disease: overusing too-clever transitions from one scene to the next. (i.e. A character exits a room, and we cut to a different character entering a different room. Ooh, artsy!)
The cast here is pretty strong. Bale has a couple of very affecting scenes, especially with Zoe Saldana. Young Affleck is in good form, wild-eyed and believable. Willem Dafoe easily pulls off slimy-with-a-good-heart. Forest Whitaker utilizes the same mumble-grumble as Bale but it works for him too. Second time this year (after Mud) that I’ve seen Sam Shepard as an old codger.
Woody Harrelson is also effective but his character is troubling. He’s an over-the-top bad guy, a heroin-fueled rageaholic. With bald-headed Woody angrily skulking around, it felt like the studio wanted Bale’s Batman to have a rematch with Bane.
Harrelson is part of Affleck’s street-fighting/fight-club sub-plot, or maybe it’s the main plot, or maybe there isn’t much of a plot to this movie. Anyway, there’s a lot of homoerotic shirtless punching and grabbing and straddling.
Also, the only two places for these illicit fights are Braddock and the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey. OK, they acknowledge that it’s a really long drive between the two places (5.5 hours), yet I don’t think we ever see them on Route 80. Must’ve clicked “Back Roads Only” on Google Maps. And Jersey seems so far away and random. Why not West Virginia? Don’t they have inbred hill people there too?
The clichés start piling up. The factory killed their dad! It’s tough for a proud fighter to take a dive! Affleck actually leaves his brother a note saying he’s just going to do this “one last fight”—you know, for the big money—before turning his life around. You can probably figure how that works out.
Am really hoping to see an excellent movie this month, but Out of the Furnace isn’t it. Maybe I should’ve quietly switched theaters during the trailers.
Jack Silbert, curator