Kevin Bacon's performance as a pedophile who is trying to start fresh has drawn raves from critics, who have praised the Woodsman as compelling, creepy, complex and well-crafted.
Kevin Bacon's performance as a pedophile who is trying to start fresh has drawn raves from critics, who have praised the Woodsman as compelling, creepy, complex and well-crafted.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 19,254
Writer/director Nicole Kassell makes her feature film debut with the drama The Woodsman. Co-written by Steven Fechter, the original script won first place at the Slamdance Screenplay Competition in 2001. Kevin Bacon plays Walter, a child molester who gets out of prison after serving a 12-year sentence. He returns to his old town and tries to start over by working at a woodyard. Fortunately, his brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt) helps him get a place to live. He even strikes up a relationship with
local gal Vickie (Bacon's real-life wife, Kyra Sedgwick). However, Walter still struggles with his past and the suspicions of co-worker Mary-Kay (Eve) and Detective Lucas (Mos Def). The Woodsman premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the dramatic competition. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
[Ms. Kassell and Mr. Fechter] trick up Walter's character with so many conflicting moods and impulses and then place him within a post-prison society that is itself alternately oppressive and permissive.
To watch this picture is to feel, and what you're feeling is an intense swirl of conflicting emotions -- disturbed, creeped-out, sorry, and, yes, even moved.
Debut director Nicole Kassell compassionately explores the troubled psyche of a former pedophile struggling with inner demons and external obstacles to lead a normal life.
(...) Aśn con su intensidad a medio camino, The Woodsman es un drama maduro, desafiante y revelador de lo que estamos dispuestos a tolerar y/o a perdonar (nos) los seres humanos.
Kevin Bacon, not a name usually dropped in conversations about great actors, delivers a tightfisted, bravura performance in this conventionally unconventional tale about a child molester's attempt at societal rehabilitation. Kyra Sedgwick is more than able support as the woman who loves him. It's often difficult to
watch, so be warned.
Slow and understated, probably to show the struggles of a very troubled soul, this film offers much to contemplate. There are no easy answers in an issue like the sexual abuse of children, and yet who is good and who is evil is not so clear here in this picture. The one thing that is clear, however, is Kevin Bacon's
performance. He played his role beautifully. DIsturbing, yet eye opening film.
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