Finally, a gritty drama for 2013 to win you over with complex characters and excellent acting performances. This movie is, first and foremost, about flawed characters who want to do the right thing but don’t always know how. Well…I say that except for Woody Harrelson’s (The Messenger, Rampart) character. He is as vile, violent, and rotten to the core as he’s ever been. There are no redeeming qualities in Harrelson’s portrayal of Harlan DeGroat, a fight organizer/crystal meth dealer who drinks way too much, dabbles a little too much in his product, and looks to physically hurt anyone and every one every time they do anything to set him off, regardless of what it is. He is a ruthless jerk to the nth degree. Unfortunately, he plays his role perfectly. Without giving anything away, he dominates the movie’s first scene and makes him the person we are to fear for the next two hours.
Similarly to Harrelson, Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone, The Killer Inside Me) continues to prove why he is one of the most underrated actors of his generation. He is at the top of his game, too, as Rodney, a volatile younger man, and Iraqi war veteran who has physically returned home between tours of duty but has yet to escape the mental anguish of the war. Rather than seeking employment, he gambles on horse races and is indebted to local bookie John Petty (a superb Willem Dafoe – Mississippi Burning, The Hunter). Rodney is a lost man trying to do right, but it becomes evident to everyone watching the movie that he is a tortured soul. Harrelson and Affleck could (and maybe should) both get Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nominations. I don’t think either will because this movie isn’t resonating with the critics as well as I believe it should, but each of these men is destined for an Academy Award win before their careers are over. It would be very difficult for me if I had to pick who would be more deserving of a nod in this movie. The film succeeds because of the performances of these two men and the performances of Dafoe and Christian Bale (who I will discuss now).
***Spoiler Alert***
Harrelson’s and Affleck’s performances aren’t the main acting highlight of the movie. Bale (The Dark Knight Rises, The Fighter) has never been better as the movie’s lead character, Russell, who works at the local steel mill during the day and cares for his terminally ill father by night. It’s a bleak life that is sweetened just enough for Russell by his girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana – Star Trek, Avatar) and the hope of a family with her. Russell works double shifts at the struggling steel mill so that he can, among other things, pay the debt owed by his younger brother Rodney to Petty. Russell is a family man. Rodney, his father, uncle, and girlfriend mean more to him than life itself. These people make his life worthwhile. Russell is not perfect, but he is a good man who does the right thing. From the movie previews, we know he spends some time in prison. We don’t know when that occurs or for what reason. When he is released (we never really are certain how long he is incarcerated for, but we can assume it is around five years), he is the same man, though worn down and remorseful for the error he has committed. The world around him is different, though. His father has died. Lena has left him for Wesley (Forest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland, Panic Room), an honest local cop. Rodney is out of the military, but his physical, emotional, and mental scars are much worse than they were before Russell landed himself in jail. Rodney has no interest in working at the mill or getting any day job. The debt he owes Petty is mounting. As a result, he involves himself with Petty’s underground prizefighting ring, where he excels, despite Petty’s demand that he take a dive and lose the fight.
Rodney needs one massive payday. He begs Petty to contact DeGroat to set a fight up in the hills of New Jersey, where the locals police themselves. Petty knows it is bad news for all involved, but Rodney forces his hand. With this one fight, Rodney believes he will be out of debt to Petty, and Petty thinks he will be out of debt to DeGroat. When things don’t go as planned, Russell’s hand is forced. Even though there are some jurisdiction questions, Wesley promises he will take care of the situation, but Russell isn’t convinced. It wants the parties responsible for paying, and he knows that the main individual is DeGroat. Though he seems untouchable and the police are scared to go near him, Russell is not scared. Since his incarceration, he’s lost everything important to him. He’s a man who still has his conscious, but at the same time, he feels like he has nothing left to lose, making him a dangerous man. On the other hand, it makes it exciting, as a moviegoer, to be with him. We cheer him on because he’s a good man, despite the unfortunate incident that landed him in prison,.
***End Spoilers***
While Bale has been making movies since the late ’80s, he turned heads for the first time in 2000’s American Psycho, a film in which he should have received a Best Actor Oscar nomination. Since then,, he has dominated the box office and won critics with incredible performances. If you have yet to see any of the following movies, do so sooner than later. If he isn’t already there, Bale will climb into your top 10 actors list. Bale’s top five performances (outside of Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise) are The Fighter, 3:10 to Yuma, Rescue Dawn, Harsh Times, and The Machinist. These are different than his five best movies, but these are his top five performances. His performance in Out of the Furnace rivals each of these other performances. The pain he wears on his face as he struggles to do the right thing is real. He deals with moral dilemmas throughout this movie. He must decide whether to take matters into his own hands or let things play out on their own and hope that everything works out the way he hopes they do.
Bale’s performance is worth the price of admission alone. The performances of Harrelson and Affleck are just icing on the cake. How director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart),, in just his second movie, was able to get such an ensemble is beyond me. Whitaker, Shepard, and Saldana are fine actors and wasted in this movie simply because there is not enough time to define their characters. All three of these actors were great in this movie. They were underutilized because most of the screen time was devoted to the leads. I assume it’s a problem that every director wishes they had. It’s a shame that these three fine actors weren’t working on other projects because far less accomplished actors could have played these roles. Nonetheless, this is a terrific movie with fantastic performances and great visuals of both a run-down blue-collar town and the backwoods of New Jersey, where the illegal fights are intense, where the drugs are rampant, and where the police are scared to go near. Cooper is now two for two in his directing career. I’m excited about his next project. Likewise, I’m excited about what lies ahead for Bale, Harrelson, and Affleck. They are the real deal.
Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 8.5/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 8.5/10
Directing 9/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 10/10 (powerful first scene)
Universal Relevance 8/10
89%
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