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Plot: A pedophile returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and attempts to start a new life.
Meet Other Fans
Recent Reviews
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MCT:September 25, 2008Powerful! Our past can haunt us for a long time and people might not be able to deal with it even though things are different in the present.
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MCT:August 28, 2008
Un film que trata el tema de la pedofilia desde la perspectiva del abusador.. lo encontré innovador e interesante. Una de las mejores performances de Bacon. Altamente recomendada.
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MCT:August 25, 2008
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick both give terrific performances and I was glad the film seemed to not be exploiting its subject or overly-dramatizing him (he's got to be the second most sympathetic pedophile in film, after Dylan Baker in Happiness).
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MCT:August 25, 2008
That Bacon, it's always easy to take the guy for granted. Some of his flicks may not be the greatest, but he always impresses.
An unexpectly compassionte look at the life and struggles of for all intents and purposes, a monster, this was a very interesting little tale. Watching this guy fight his urges makes for some uncomfortable viewing. What the film does very well is to offer conflict. We shouldn't feel bad for this guy, but we do, you want him to make a new life for himself when maybe he doesn't deserve that chance.
Most of this is down to the Bacon. It's a pretty bold move on his part to do a project like this and he is excellent. Whilst there is a little movie of the week feel about the whole thing, it's a fascinating watch none the less. -
MCT:August 12, 2008
A very touchy subject that is displayed in this film very tastefully. The director did a great job with that and Kevin Bacon was really brave for taking on the role. It's pretty sad film but that is to be expected with this one.
What is impressive about Bacon's performance in this one is because even though you are automatically disgusted with his character from the beginning because of what he's done, you at the same time find yourself somehow eventually sympathizing with him. Major kudos for pulling that off.
I kinda find it funny how, even though I haven't seen too many Kevin Bacon films, that this one had the most sex/implied after sex scenes seemingly mostly because the love interest to Kevin Bacon's character is played by his actual wife Kyra Sedgwick. Apparently when your significant other is playing a role beside you it's like "woo! game on!" *snicker*
Anyway, good movie, and I'm starting to like Kevin Bacon a lot lately..... -
MCT:July 26, 2008
I enjoyed this movie a lot - Kevin Bacon was really good, and you actually felt sympathy for his character, though I felt it ended a little abruptly.
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MCT:July 24, 2008
Hmmmm i'm not sure what to make of this one. It was a good movie, but i would have liked a little more background, or to just have had it spelled out for me. It's best not to leave this kind of subject matter to the imagination.
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MCT:July 23, 2008It's a shame this film went unnoticed. It's so disturbing and awakening. Kevin Bacon gives his greatest performance.
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MCT:July 8, 2008Another great Kevin Bacon movie. His non-speaking scenes are actually some of the best in the movie.
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MCT:June 1, 2008
Kevin Bacon is gold in this flick. Its sometimes horrible to watch. Bratt is awesome too. It makes you think.
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MCT:May 22, 2008
It's a great drama. Kevin Bacon plays the role of his life (or almost) in this magnificent but hard to watch film. I like multidimensional characters because they show how humans are truly like and this is what we get in The Woodsman. It could be a real story.
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MCT:May 15, 2008
what a great disturbing movie, you're constantly questioning Bacons character, will he, won't he? Amazing performances by husband wife team bacon and sedgwick
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MCT:April 18, 2008
Deals with a difficult subject in a difficult and different way, I don't recommend this to anyone because it's disturbing sometimes, specially the scene in the park when Walter and the little girl talk for the second time is one of the most unsettling scenes that I've ever seen, Kevin Bacon is great and gives a solid performance in this movie
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MCT:April 4, 2008great acting 4m Kevin Bacon.... well done 4 playin a weird character.... but de film itslef was slow nd not all dat interestin...
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MCT:March 27, 2008
Tras 12 años en prision por haber abusado de una menor, Walter regresa a su ciudad natal para tratar de iniciar una nueva vida. Todo parece ir sin problemas. Conoce a Vicky, quien le brinda cariño y comprension y no lo juzga por lo que hizo en el pasado. Pero un policia que conoce los hechos asedia a Walter, seguro de que cometera de nuevo un horrendo crimen. Las culpas y su incapacidad por darse una segunda oportunidad, llevan a Walter a un callejon sin salida.
Debo confesar que esta pelicula la vi por Bacon, que me encanta. Pensaba que iba a estar buena, pero jamas me imagine que se convertiria en una de mis peliculas mas apreciadas. -
MCT:March 20, 2008
A story that didn't lead anywere. It was a little bit too short and didn't give what you had thought.
Bacon is though very good. -
MCT:March 12, 2008
Interesting point of view. Nice imagery. Kevin Bacon is refreshingly vulnerable. Mos Def is fantastic.
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MCT:February 20, 2008
After twelve years in prison, Walter arrives in an unnamed city, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself. A quiet, guarded man, Walter finds unexpected solace from Vickie, a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is warily eyed by his brother-in-law, shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious local police officer, Detective Lucas. After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons. Bacon is truly amazing in his implosive turn as a man so at odds with being in his own skin it threatens to suffocate him in his vein gestures at becoming 'normal' and his body language suggests a crumbling man of sand about to blow away in the winds of society. His pained, grimace of accepting his sickness only curdles his well intended desire to shirk his monstrous past but will not embrace the touchy-feely psycho-babble that he must endure to delve into his childhood as perhaps the key to his perversities. It is a modern day witch-hunt, where accusers reign and the accused all face the gallows, regardless of the severity of their crimes. The film is itself a parable, in this way. Walter will have to confront his impulses day by day, finding himself stronger each time to fight them down, since he now will be living with the knowledge that was able to show that strength once already.
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MCT:February 17, 2008
I've always thought that Kevin Bacon was under appreciated - this film drives that home - I don't know how anyone could have done a better job with such a difficult taboo subject matter than he did in this film where he plays a convicted pedophile named Walter released on parole. Bacon's wife Kyra Sedgwick co-stars in this film with him as his girlfriend. I must also say Mos Def gives a great performance as well in the supporting role as the detective assigned to Walter's case.
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MCT:February 8, 2008
about a sick pedophile who fianlly see pain it cause sand he recovers. it makes all men out to be incestual, molesting sisters and daughters- not true
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MCT:January 20, 2008
As readers of my reviews know, I am violently repelled by stories of pedophilia. I rejected the movie Happiness simply because it tried to present a pedophile as a normal family man with special issues. But I am attracted by stories of people struggling to redeem themselves. The Woodsman starts from this stance, with someone who regrets the terrible things he's done and is simply trying to carve out a tiny niche for himself to exist, unnoticed, while he figures out if it's even possible to redeem himself.
It is Bacon's performance as Walter that makes this movie work. This is an interior film, without much action to propel it. The action that's there serves mostly to heighten interest in Walter's daily struggles with his demons and the fear that he might revert to his old behaviors. Bacon is pitch-perfect as a man who simultaneously needs to numb himself to certain of his feelings while allowing himself to feel shame and enough interest in others to get by. Bacon's entire being conveys Walter's inner torture, his face by turns blank and unfeeling, then in turmoil. As he alternately proclaims "I'm not a monster!" and asks "When will I be normal?" throughout the film, his entire body resonates with those conflicts.
When a romance opens Walter up a little, his pedophelic urges also wriggle out from his tight control. I found myself simultaneously rooting for him and distancing myself from him as his black urges got a stronger grip on him. The relief I felt at his epiphany in dealing with these feelings (with the assistance of a terrific performance from a young girl) made me realize I'd been barely breathing for about five minutes, so gripping were the performances. This is not to say that Walter's decision transforms him into a completely decent human being. In fact, the following scenes clearly show that Walter may never be completely likable. But they do indicate that he can elevate himself above the level of the piece of s**t his parole officer thinks he is.
Helping the film are fine supporting performances. Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), was believable a Walter's brother-in-law who was willing to help re-integrate Walter into the family because of the earlier loyalty Walter showed him. His forceful warning to Walter about not messing with Carlos' own daughter added a second dimension to Carlos, hinting at the effort it took for him to repay that loyalty. And as unlikely as it was for Walter to enter a relationship, even with a hard-as-nails woman like Vicki (Kyra Sedgewick, Bacon's real-life wife), I can attest from observation and experience that damaged people seek out damaged people to have relationships with. Their affection, while genuine, is unsentimental, as befits the bleak tone of the film. And Hanna Pilke, who plays Walter's potential prey, gives a brief but knockout performance.
Clearly, The Woodsman is not a film for everyone. It is bleak, unsentimental, and only mildly uplifting. But as compensation, you do a stellar performance of a man trying to turn around his life with the odds against him. -
MCT:December 30, 2007
Kevin Bacon is such an amazing actor. No matter what the guy's role is, whether he's a deranged homosexual plotting John F. Kennedy's assassination in Oliver Stone's controversial 'JFK', a deranged redneck in 'The River Wild ', an astronaut in Ron Howard's 'Apollo 13', a psychopathic murderer in the not-too-well received 'Murder in the First', or most recently, a haunted cop with a troubling past in Clint Eastwood's masterpiece, 'Mystic River', he's astounding. Last year I felt he should have gotten nominated for an Oscar for 'Mystic River', but the Academy are idiots anyway. For a truly excellent performer as Mr. Bacon is, he is so undeservedly underrated. He's never really gotten the acclaim he so desperately deserves, but his startling and frightening turn as the recovering pedophile in Nicole Kassell's 'The Woodsman' is something people are going to be talking about for a long time. This whole film relies on him, and Kevin Bacon really succeeds with flying colors.
The story follows Walter (Bacon) and his release from prison for molesting pre-teen girls. Walter has just spent twelve years of his life locked up, and after he gets released his whole family and all his friends disown him. That is except his sister's husband, Carlos (Benjamin Bratt - Law & Order), who still visits Walter in his apartment when he's on supervised parole. Walter is frustrated because he wants to see his family, and he also struggles to control himself to keep from fondling or molesting children. He doesn't find it too easy when his apartment is right across the street from an elementary school. He tells his therapist, Rosen (Michael Shannon - Pearl Harbor), about this and his difficulty to control himself. Rosen tells him to journal his feelings whenever he looks out his window, instead of acting on his sick impulses. Walter spots another pedophile he refers to as "Candy" , and tries to stop him, in a way of redeeming himself. Walter also gets a job at the local saw mill, since his father's old friend Bob (David Alan Grier - In Living Color) feels he owes it to Walter to employ him. At the saw mill Walter has run-ins with Bob's secretary Mary-Kay (Eve - Barbershop 2) after she finds out about his terrible past, and Walter falls in love with an emotionally damaged co-worker, Vicki (Kyra Sedgewick - Secondhand Lions) who accepts Walter as a human being and not just a monster. A hardened police detective played by rapper Mos Def, who believes Walter to be a waste of life, is also watching Walter constantly. During the course of the film, Walter tries desperately to fight his affliction and become something he always wanted to be - normal.
For as great a film 'The Woodsman' is, it's extremely hard to watch. I was so disturbed by the power of the film, I don't think I could ever bring myself to watch it again. The movie belongs to Kevin Bacon, who gives such a groundbreaking, powerhouse of a performance that goes down as Bacon's best. Kevin Bacon owns the character Walter, and achieves something I thought to be impossible - he makes us feel sympathy for someone is impulsively rapes little kids. If that's not acting at it's finest, I don't know what the hell is. It's an absolute shame Kevin Bacon didn't get an Oscar nomination for this, and I really lost a lot of respect for the Academy, and how cowardly they are for not recognizing him. The supporting cast is fabulous also. Kyra Sedgewick gives a complex and powerful performance as Walter's love interest, and Mos Def gives an even more powerful performance as the police detective tailing Walter, who delivers perhaps the film's most powerful speech relating to pedophilia and Little Red Riding Hood. David Alan Grier is good showing a dramatic side to his usual comic self in the extremely limited screen time he has, and Eve does a mediocre job. Benjamin Bratt is great as usual as Walter's only friend, and newcomer Hannah Pilkes is breathtaking in her scenes with Bacon. Nicole Kassell does a fine job with her directorial debut, although I wasn't too crazy about the pretentious freeze frames in the opening credits. The screenplay is provocative, daring and wonderful.
When it comes down to the needle 'The Woodsman' is a powerful and thought-provoking movie, but it is also as unsettling as it gets. I struggled my way through the short 87-minute runtime, and disturbing movies usually don't get to me. I can only recommend 'The Woodsman' to the strongest of hearts, so if you are easily unsettled rent a romantic comedy instead. If you can handle it, 'The Woodsman' will cause you to reflect on a lot of things you thought you had figured out already. I know I did. Grade: B+ -
MCT:December 10, 2007The very calm, serious and touching movie about a pedophile trying to live a normal life after prison. While there isn't much happening in the course of the 80 minutes as we watch Walter's troubled attempts of a normal life, it is Kevin Bacon's vulnerable and very convincing performance that carries the film. Especially Walter's second meeting with a girl in the park is an extremely strong scene and makes a big point for this being one of Bacon's best performances of his career. While it might be debatable if a pedophile is as aware of his wrong-doings and trying to mend his way as Walter is, the movie at least makes sure to show that they are humans too and sometimes might deserve a second chance. A gloomy movie, but not without hope. Worth seeing.
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MCT:November 28, 2007
After watching this movie I've stopped to consider the Academy Award as the best thing that can happen to an actor. Why wasn't Bacon even a nominee? A movie that takes a stand, great acting. Highly recommended!
Comments
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alush1posted 167 days ago -
this really does provoke, big time. I like the fact that it doesent tell you what to think, it does not force you to have sympathy with the main character, and it gives you a chance to dislike/ understand all of the characters in the film - and their acts. Some scenes are enormous poweful in a painful way, and kevin does a good job in the way he let us feel his struggling and anxiety.
posted 706 days ago -
I have to say that even though it is controversial I think people should see this movie. Just give this film a chance.
posted 834 days ago
