Out of the Furnace Review: Well Acted But Mostly Forgettable!

Out of the Furnace is one of those December movies that I’m eagerly waiting for, all because of the powerhouse cast in the movie, also the previews that were released before propelled up my excitement and all I wanted was some wholesome experience.

Delimited with a dark gritty vibe, the movie narrates you the story of two brothers Russell (Christian Bale) and Rodney (Casey Affleck) who are distressed with their lives for various reasons. After a few involuntary situations, Rodney decides to sneak into few treacherous underworld fraternities which totally changes the whole scenario and compels Russell to scrutinize the whole situation.

In contrast, the movie was poorly written, it seemed passionate but the penetrating drama and the emotion are no where to be found. The part-to-part narration completely took me out of the experience and I didn’t really care about the sentiment when it’s been delivered. It elevates you to the expected level but never really utilizes the situation to keep you intact and that’s the major issue throughout the movie, the climax was monotonous and dreary and didn’t fascinate me for the most part.

Conversely, the performances are incredibly strong, Christian Bale was traditionally riveting, his performance as Russell, a depressed lost individual made me feel about his character, but then again the story was stale. Casey Affleck and William Dafoe were remarkable as Rodney Baze Jr. and John Petty respectively. Woody Harrelson played Harlan DeGroat, this evil wicked villain which is truly realistic and for the most part it was quite unnerving to watch this ruthless individual doing terrible things around.

On the whole, Out of the Furnace is well acted, yet a forgettable movie. The outline was quite captivating but the narration and the writing was certainly a let down. I’m going with two point five stars for this movie, watch it if you’re really patient and want a movie with darker tone.

‘Out of the Furnace’ Rating – 2.5/5