He's just been Oscar nominated for American Hustle, but the brilliant Christian Bale returns with some fresh facial fuzz and a deadly desire for vengeance.

The all-star action is set in similar post-industrial, Pennsylvanian territory to last week’s Stallone thriller Grudge Match, except this is ten times the harder-hitting movie.

It’s inspired by life in Braddock, a ‘Rust Belt’ town where the real life mayor’s tattoos include the names of local murder victims.

Everyone’s struggling in the dying economy, except, perhaps, for Edward Kennedy who is batting on TV for Barack Obama ‘to restore America’.

Following an opening which signals the heinous brutality of bearded bruiser Harlan DeGroat (Woody Harrelson), everything seems to be blue – from the workers’ collars to the bed sheets, jeans, trucks, factories, t-shirts, caps, doors and, of course, tattoos.

Steel mill worker Russell Baze (Bale) tries to help with his brother’s debt, only for post traumatic stress disorder sufferer Rodney (Casey Affleck) to be incapable of throwing a fight he’s lured into by Petty (Willem Dafoe).

As the heat is turned up on Rodney, how will Russell deal with the risks to himself?

Looking totally unlike his fattened persona in American Hustle, the unrestrained Bale offers explosive unpredictability fuelled by family loyalties.

Directed by Scott Cooper, whose debut film Crazy Heart (2010) finally turned its veteran star Jeff Bridges into a best actor Oscar winner, the hand-held camera-work overseen by Japanese cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi (Silver Linings Playbook) is of an engrossingly high standard.

Furnace tries to blend The Deer Hunter sensibilities with Fight Club’s punch-ups, while using Harrelson’s tattooed fists to reference Robert Mitchum in the recent re-released 1955 noir classic, The Night of the Hunter.

But the over-arced plot under uses the Oscar-winning Forest Whitaker as police chief Wesley, who is seeing Russell’s teacher girlfriend Linda (Avatar’s Zoe Saldana).