Out Of The Furnace (15.)
Directed by Scott Cooper.
Starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Zoe Zaldana, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Sam Shepard and Willem Dafoe. 116 mins
This blue collar tragedy set in the recession-blighted American heartland is like The Deer Hunter without Vietnam. The milieu is much the same and its look at the struggles of the American working class is sincere enough but is strapped to another bogus adventure story. Bale is a decent hard working man toiling at the steel mill; Affleck is his soldier brother who between tours in Iraq drifts around gambling, brawling and getting into debt; Harrelson is a backwoods hillbilly psycho who organises bar knuckle fights.
It throbs with growled salt-of-the-earth intensity. Mills billow smoke, everybody dutifully sucks back bottled beers or bourbons, the sky is always overcast and naturally Bale smashes up a phone to show how angry and frustrated he is. It’s gritty and brooding, but ploddingly so and it is never quite clear why everybody is getting so worked up.
Director Cooper, who previously directed Jeff Bridges to an Oscar in Crazy Heart, can certainly tell a story – he must have told some fantastic ones to persuade such a prestigious, name-studded cast that this warranted their presence. It is well acted, looks good but is impenetrably overwrought. For all its socio-economic trappings this American working man tragedy ends up being just another modern day western, a man’s-gotta-do revenge tale that Stallone might have whipped through in much less time, with much less fuss and just as little effect.
Directed by Scott Cooper.
Starring Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Zoe Zaldana, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker, Sam Shepard and Willem Dafoe. 116 mins
This blue collar tragedy set in the recession-blighted American heartland is like The Deer Hunter without Vietnam. The milieu is much the same and its look at the struggles of the American working class is sincere enough but is strapped to another bogus adventure story. Bale is a decent hard working man toiling at the steel mill; Affleck is his soldier brother who between tours in Iraq drifts around gambling, brawling and getting into debt; Harrelson is a backwoods hillbilly psycho who organises bar knuckle fights.
It throbs with growled salt-of-the-earth intensity. Mills billow smoke, everybody dutifully sucks back bottled beers or bourbons, the sky is always overcast and naturally Bale smashes up a phone to show how angry and frustrated he is. It’s gritty and brooding, but ploddingly so and it is never quite clear why everybody is getting so worked up.
Director Cooper, who previously directed Jeff Bridges to an Oscar in Crazy Heart, can certainly tell a story – he must have told some fantastic ones to persuade such a prestigious, name-studded cast that this warranted their presence. It is well acted, looks good but is impenetrably overwrought. For all its socio-economic trappings this American working man tragedy ends up being just another modern day western, a man’s-gotta-do revenge tale that Stallone might have whipped through in much less time, with much less fuss and just as little effect.
