Hard to love or hate the ‘Harsh’ antihero

“Harsh Times” goes down like the vinegar its protagonist chugs to try to beat a drug test. It’s carefully crafted, exasperating and ugly, a festival of self-destructiveness, in all ways a reflection of its lead as brought to careening, erupting, implosive life by Christian Bale.

Bale plays Jim Davis, a recently discharged Army Ranger trying to get his postwar life on track in South Los Angeles. Jim hopes to find some stability by joining the police department, and then bringing over and marrying his adoring sweetheart from rural Mexico. In the meantime, he and lifelong best friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez of “Six Feet Under”) are getting high, hammered and into trouble, just as they did in school. The difference between then and now is that today they’re men, not boys, and the trouble they find is appropriately scaled. And Jim, haunted by his grisly war experiences, is not quite the fun-loving scrapper of his youth; Mike has no idea what his friend is capable of, or what he has done.

Writer-director David Ayer, who reportedly grew up in neighborhoods like those in the film, brings an air of authenticity to the proceedings. The slang, the modes of dress, even the styles of fighting all have a high degree of specificity that lifts the movie above most urban crime dramas. Although viewers will be slapping their foreheads as the characters make one horrible choice after another, they won’t be saying, “That could never happen.” The action is well-staged, except for a clumsy opening flashback to the war.

“Harsh Times” is a dark, brutal character study of an antihero along the lines of the sociopathic cop in Ayer’s best-known script, “Training Day,” the title rogue in “Bad Lieutenant” or even Alex the droog in “A Clockwork Orange.” Despite the things that make Jim human -- his apparent love for the doting Marta, his brotherhood with Mike, his post-traumatic stress disorder -- audiences will be constantly conflicted over whether he should get the chance he craves, or a bullet in the head.

But there’s something almost naive about him, this arrested adolescent with no attention span and boyish-seeming dreams. In another life he might have been the townie who never went to college, or the big man on campus who didn’t make the NFL. In this life, however, his “I wanna be a policeman” routine fills one with less sympathy than dread. As one sensible character -- played by Eva Longoria -- says, “My biggest nightmare is you with a badge.”

This is not a political film, but there is sickening irony when Jim is deemed psychologically unfit for the LAPD but welcomed into the ranks of Homeland Security.

It’s Mike whom viewers will worry about. He’s the one who might have a chance of getting out of this ricocheting world of drugs and violence. Mike is torn between growing up -- getting a real job for the sake of his relationship with longtime love Sylvia (Longoria, solid as the voice of reason) -- and the irresistible pull of adventure and loyalty.

The real story here is that Bale continues to establish himself as one of the most daring and committed actors of his generation. Since his icy, quotation-marked work in “American Psycho,” he has brought dimension to the comic-book hero in “Batman Begins” and reduced himself to a complicated shadow in “The Machinist,” among other memorable and varied performances. In “Harsh Times” he deftly switches register as Jim moves between worlds, from “Yo vato” to “Yes sir” as his environment dictates. Although there are moments when Bale seems less than comfortable channeling his inner homie, he delivers an intense, unpredictable performance that makes even epically awful decisions seem plausible.

*

‘Harsh Times’

MPAA rating: R for strong violence, language and drug use.

An MGM release. Writer-director-producer David Ayer. Producer Andrea Sperling. Cinematographer Steve Mason. Editor Conrad Buff. Costume designer Michele Michel. Music Graeme Revell. Production designer Devorah Herbert. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

In general release.