Writer-director Scott Cooper’s Crazy Heart, with a winsomely scraggly performance from Jeff Bridges, tapped into a raw, living-on-the-edge vibe that obviously would have inspired a Country song or two. Living and loving ain’t easy, especially as you age and find that you haven’t quite grown up the way you should have. So this time, with Out of the Furnace, Cooper heats things up with a much darker tale of grime and grease about a down-on-his-luck vet (Casey Affleck) who gets into trouble with the head of an underground fight club (Woody Harrelson), which lures the vet’s brother (Christian Bale) in to settle the score. Furnace works overtime in this violent world, so long, in fact, that the hours and the never-ending fires have burnished the blood red stains into dark mahogany chars that not even the best CSI team would be able to use to identify the remains. Talk about bringing the heat; the supporting cast here includes Sam Shepard, Willem Dafoe and Forest Whitaker. Opens wide Dec. 6. (R) Not screened in time for review
