The Woodsman: Movie & DVD Review (2004)

(Originally published 2004)

Nicole Kassell's "The Woodsman" stars Kevin Bacon as Walter, a convicted pedophile recently released from a 12-year stint in prison who is trying to rebuild his life in spite of the temptations threatening to derail it.

Good luck to Walter.

As directed by Kassell from a script she and Steven Fechter based on his play, "The Woodsman" is dicey, tense moviemaking that rides an uncomfortable edge throughout.

It features a performance by Bacon that was among last year's bravest and most overlooked. He's excellent here, all caged, inward turmoil framed by a face wiped clean of expression. Only his eyes reveal the truth of how he feels - frightened, troubled, wary.

Set in a blue-collar section of Philadelphia, the film opens with Walter leaving prison under the supervised parole of Sgt. Lucas (Mos Def), finding work at a lumberyard thanks to family connections, and then securing an apartment across the street from a grade school.

Allegedly, this was the only apartment complex in the city that would take a sex offender's money, but really, it's just a plot contrivance, allowing us to watch Walter struggle with himself as he watches young girls playing just out of reach below him.

Three additional characters enter the mix -Walter's brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), who is the only family member not to shun him; Walter's co-worker Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon's real-life wife), with whom he has a telling affair; and the homosexual pedophile, Candy (Kevin Rice), who is paying too much attention to the boys in the playground beneath Walter's living room window.

Throughout, too many contrivances bump against story, sending it askew, but still it comes recommended, particularly because of Bacon, who is superb here, taking a major career risk to examine the sort of character few actors have the guts to play or, for that matter, few people want to face.

This is an uneasy, sometimes difficult film to watch - rare at the movies these days - and not all will welcome it for good reasons. But as a study in pedophilia, which is especially timely given the claims against the Catholic Church and now with the Michael Jackson trial, there is plenty to be said for the conversation it ignites.

Kassell doesn't make Walter sympathetic and she doesn't demonize him. Instead, she observes him, focusing on his compulsions and treating his pedophilia as a disease. This will be a sticking point for some, particularly given the crimes involved, but it nevertheless proves the right choice for the movie. It allows it nuances, layers and complications it otherwise would have lacked had Kassell gone for straight apologia or outright attack.

Grade: B+