Out of the Furnace

Overlooked thriller that does an excellent job focusing on the life of parolee Bale and his veteran brother Affleck, and the irony of how freedom is a prison/war when there is nothing left to come back to. Harrelson is an awesome redneck villain and Bower, Dafoe, Shepard, Whitaker and Wolfe stand out even in their minor roles. Affleck's character's conflict is overwhelmingly realistic and the actor flawlessly executes a soldier's postwar troubles; but the potentially wonderful character-development reveals itself to be a secondary interest to writer/director Cooper when we arrive at the popcorn finale. No doubt it ends as great as it began, but the climatic sequence before the last few moments is plagued with a lack of substance that is contrary to the rest of the film. All-in-all, entertaining AND moving. Final shot could be a portrait masterpiece.