Set in North Braddock, a desolate town in Pennsylvania, Out Of The Furnace`s emotional core hinges on the relationship between two brothers, Russell (Bale) and Rodney Baze (Affleck). Russell works a dead-end blue collar job at the local steel mill, while Rodney, the younger brother, is a war veteran who drifts on the seamier edges of the town`s criminal underbelly, following several tours in Iraq.
Out Of The Furnace`s plot doesn`t seem to grow out of a screenplay, but instead mirrors the coincidences of real life, the compounding of events into inevitable tragedy: a car accident on the part of Russell, a decision to gamble and fight in bare-knuckle brawls on the part of Rodney. Harlan Degroat (Harrelson) acts as the catalyst in this downturn of events, a backwoods sociopath who dabbles in physical abuse, drugs, and casual murder.
The tragedy of the film comes not from the fact that its characters are good people, but that they want to be good people, or at least, to do good by the people they care about. Russell and Rodney share a deep brotherly love, defined by difference as much as kinship.
If circumstances were different, perhaps Rodney`s rage would have been a passion of character, and Russell`s inaction a form of stability rather than stagnation. Therein lies the second part of the tragedy in the film: the inevitability of circumstance. That creeping sense of corrosion is channelled perfectly through director Scott Cooper`s cinematography, which captures the soot, rust and dirt of an ailing steel belt town.
Fundamentally, Out Of The Furnace is a film that`s saved by the stellar acting of its cast. The film itself borrows overmuch from films like The Deer Hunter and The Silence Of The Lambs, with a SWAT team operation in the movie`s latter half likely to evoke a familiar sense of deja vu. Nonetheless, it proves to be a solid vehicle for the standout performances of its actors, notably Affleck and Bale.
It`s difficult to capture the remarkable nuances on display in Out Of The Furnace in words. We could tell you about the scene where Bale`s character, Russell, is released from jailâ€