‘Out of the Furnace’ is like ‘Winter’s Bone’, except with less pathos and more testosterone. Also, everyone is kind of an asshole, so it can be hard to care what happens next.

Casey Affleck (the superior Affleck these days, at least in front of the camera) is a moody, traumatized vet back from Afghanistan. He is having difficulty transitioning back into the flow of civilian life. We know this because he has a couple of hamfisted speeches that tell us so. He deals with his stress by gambling and fight-clubbing to try and pay his mounting debts.

Christian Bale plays the protective older brother, working in a mill and sleeping with a girl who looks like Zoe Saldana (played by Zoe Saldana), as millworkers often do. When baby brother goes missing after a foolhardy attempt to fight his way out of debt in the Meth District, Bale follows him into the darkness to confront King Meth, played by Woody Harrelson.

There is more, of course. There is love stuff, and fathers-and-sons stuff, and conspicuous working-class grit. It’s all competent, but it’s all weeds around the garden of physical violence. The real story is about scruffing up pretty actors, and watching them sleepwalk through a tepid rehash of a thousand better hillbilly noirs. Furthermore, the heavy-handed Oscar-trolling script saddles the actors with a lot of crappy dialogue and an ending so bad it will make you claw at your own eyes.

Just watch ‘Winter’s Bone’.