Out of the Furnace

Occupying the same headspace as Killing Them Softly, Out Of The Furnace looks for hope and change as the 2008 presidential election gathers pace but depressingly finds instead that there will always be one constant: very bad men will do continue to do very bad things and the only justice to be found is that of the street.

Christian Bale lives in one of those towns where heavy factory smoke dominates the skyline, seedy bars populate the dark lit streets and pickup trucks sport slain bucks. Driving home drunk one night Bale crashes into a car, killing a mother and child. When released from prison he finds that girlfriend Saldana has moved on with cop Forest Whittaker and wayward brother Affleck works off his debt to Willem Dafoe by throwing bare-knuckle bouts in dingy abandoned warehouses. Running out of options Affleck pushes for a fight with one of Harrelson's men, as Bale tries to straighten him out.

The flipside of the characters found in the likes of Jack Ryan and Lone Survivor - movies chock-full of shiny men that America likes to think it produces - Out Of The Furnace boasts a hellish opposite. Dafoe is your friend as long as there is money to be made; Iraq War vet Affleck is too disillusioned to be of any use; Uncle Sam Shepard is a good guy too but he's too meek (or underwritten) to have an influence; and while Bale is of decent heart he will never seek anything more than working at the mill. He'll be ordering another round from the same bar stool in thirty years' time.

But the good guys that aren't memorable and it's no accident that the snarling beast that is Harrelson is the one that dominates thoughts. Cut from the same cloth as Barry Gifford's Bobby Peru, Harrelson, with his rotting teeth, glass pipe and jar of moonshine, cares not for the sacrifices Affleck made in 'I-raq' and never will. His cruelty is unrepentant and unceasing. This is who Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) wants you to remember.

Yes, it steals from Deerhunter, its imagery can be heavy-handed and the oppressive fug of despair can stall momentum but this is an authentic world filled with believable characters that are brought to life by solid performances.