Big Picture Big Sound

Vengeance is fine

It's that time of year! Holiday parties, festive decorations, and that last handful of movies held back so they're fresh in Oscar's mind when it comes time to start making those nominations. "Out of the Furnace", with a staggeringly talented cast led by Christian Bale, definitely has its sights trained on a prosperous award season. Unfortunately, all of that Hollywood A-list shine can't make a worthy movie on its own. The story has to be there, too.

To call Russell Baze (Christian Bale) down on his luck is understating it. His father is dying. His unemployed veteran brother Rodney (played by Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford") is running up quite a gambling debt. Double shifts at the steel mill allow Russell to help pay that down, but mean he never quite sees enough of girlfriend Lena (Zoe Saldana, "Avatar"). Blessed with a good attitude about it all, Russell manages. Until one night, on his way home from the bar, he hits a car coming out of a blind driveway. He's over the limit (just) and the accident - fatal for passengers in the other vehicle - lands him in prison, turning his world on its head.

The linchpin in a delicate equilibrium, Russell's absence has ripples - most profoundly to his brother. Rodney is called for a tour of Afghanistan, and comes back raging with PTSD. His gambling still a problem, he now turns to fighting to help pay off his debt and is pulled into a dangerous crime ring. By the time Russell is released, his father has passed, Lena has left him for police chief Wesley Barnes (Forest Whitaker, "Lee Daniels' The Butler") and Rodney is so far down his own rabbit hole, he's become tangled with the truly terrifying Harlan DeGroat, Woody Harrelson at his sociopathic best.

Rodney wants to turn things around for himself, and vows to do just that in a letter left for Russell before heading out for one final fight. When he fails to return, it's pretty clear where the story is going, and what follows turns what had been an interesting study in relationships into a grim (really grim) story of revenge.

The story is very character-driven so it's a treat that pretty much the entire cast is so amazingly A-list. Christian Bale's Russell is wonderfully played - a multi-faceted man caught between hopelessness and his own humanity. Casey Affleck shines as Rodney, whose demons haunt him in ways he doesn't have the tools to deal with. We're all used to seeing Woody Harrelson as a psychopath by now, and he doesn't disappoint. With smaller roles for Willem DaFoe (local gambling boss John Petty) and Forest Whitaker, there's a lot of star power. Most disappointing is Zoe Saldana's role, but not through any fault of her own. In "Out of the Furnace", women are little more than props.

The film is director Scott Cooper's sophomore effort, his first being "Crazy Heart", and he does well with the material. It's the script - also penned by Cooper, with newcomer Brad Ingelsby - that lets the film down. All of the right elements are there, but the story is just not inspired. We've seen it all before. And two hours of hopelessness is just a bit too much for nothing new. Not even Christian Bale can save that.