The Woodsman Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)December 27th, 2004
Susan Granger's review of "The Woodsman" (Newmarket Films)
Remember how in "Little Red Riding Hood" the Woodsman rescued the little girl out of the belly of the big bad wolf? That's pivotal to this creepy, dubious tale of a convicted pedophile.
Walter (Kevin Bacon) has just been released after serving 12 years in prison for child molestation So where does he lease an apartment? Right across the street from a grade school (K-6), so he can look longingly out the window at the children. (Neither his parole officer nor his therapist find this as bizarre I did.) Shunned by his family, except for his genial brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt), he leads a solitary existence, working at a lumber yard, until he's befriended and bedded by a co-worker (Kyra Sedgwick) who's obviously not shocked by his past. But that doesn't stop him from following a young girl (Hannah Pilkes) after school and asking her to sit on his lap. So will Walter ever be able to control his predilection for preteens and be "normal"? If you can get past the repugnant subject matter (which admittedly I couldn't), first-time director/writer Nicole Kassel subtly adapts Steven Fetcher's serious, compassionate play about a psychologically conflicted man. It's a drama asserting that predatory pedophiles are people too.
Kevin Bacon ("Mystic River") captures the sullen stance of an outcast, Kyra Sedgwick ("Secondhand Lions") is persuasive, but it's rapper Mos Def as a police officer who embodies society's distrust and animosity, voicing an astute awareness that - in serial cases like this - recidivism is often inevitable. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Woodsman" is a sobering, sordid 6. But why would moviegoers want to choose the company of a loathsome convicted sex offender? Surely there are better ways to spend your time and money.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
