Out of the Furnace

Three terrific leading performances from Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson and especially Casey Afflcek, anchor this marginally entertaining drama about lost souls and consequences. It is however, one that never really gives its audience the cathartic payoff they deserve and feels like a missed opportunity a lot of the time. Too bad because especially early on, it had the makings of a solid character study/revenge film with believable situations and strong doses of tough violence. All three leading men are fantastic, each looking dirt poor and not at all like the millionaires they truly are. However, the anti-climactic ending spoils most of what came before.