The Woodsman Reviews
Top Critic
A lean and unapologetic piece about a type of person too often rendered in simplistic 'monster' colors.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
[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.
An involving, intense but ultimately confused portrait.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A flawed film that's well worth seeing.
| Original Score: B
Kassell, a first-time feature filmmaker, shows confidence and some lovely instincts.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
A compelling drama that pulls back the curtain on a problem of epidemic proportions.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Bacon deservedly has received most of the attention here, but Sedgwick, who doesn't work nearly enough, brings grit and hardscrabble realism to the role of a woman who has turned defiance into a protective shield.
| Original Score: B+
Walter isn't particularly likable. But to the film's credit, he becomes human.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Bacon's portrait chills to the bone.
| Original Score: 3/4
A sometimes disturbing yet equally revealing film that examines the motivations of our worst societal outcasts and tries to make some sense of it all.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
This is a gutsy little film, intense and interestingly acted.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
This by turns unsettling and inspiring drama offers no easy answers, let alone identifiable heroes or villains.
Bacon is a strong and subtle actor, something that is often said but insufficiently appreciated. Here he employs all of his art.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
If the trappings feel stilted, the performances keep the film on track.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Revealing moments and Ms. Kassell's solid direction redeem the film's perfunctory script and deliver a film that will make you shiver and also make you think. This one will stay with you.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Bacon's subtle, assured performance keeps us with him every step of the way.
It's Bacon who overcomes all obstacles. This underrated actor, who never got the props he deserved for Mystic River, has found the role of his career.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
This potentially shattering film becomes too comfortable and pat, lacking in menace.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
The power of The Woodsman is that it's willing to point these men out -- and unwilling to either write them off as cardboard villains or excuse them as poor deprived victims.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Given its genuinely disturbing subject matter, The Woodsman isn't what you would call a crowd pleaser, but it's definitely a work of art.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
If you're looking for a star of tomorrow, stop at Mos Def. The New York hip-hop artist gives a breakout performance as the morally indignant cop who keeps letting Walter know that he knows what he's doing.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Nicole Kassell's lean, disturbing first film stars Kevin Bacon as a child molester struggling to re-enter society after 12 years in prison.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Bacon, displaying the commitment essential to taking this part on, has a powerful hold on the role and refuses to let go.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
If the key to such a film is making the man sympathetic while the crime remains unspeakable, Kassell, Bacon and co-writer Steven Fechter succeed triumphantly.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
Offers a rare and uncommonly compassionate look at pedophilia, a psychological disorder most of us regard with horror and ignorance, and provides Kevin Bacon with the best role of his career.
This is arguably the best performance in [Bacon's] career.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
An engrossing study of a protagonist who variously inspires pity, clinical interest, fondness, and revulsion -- sometimes all at once.
This is dark material, this is depressing, but it's not depressing to see a film that in a very intelligent, thoughtful way examines difficult subjects.
Bacon wraps this buttoned-up guilty man in a paranoid daze of angry silence, as if even the most casual conversation about who he is could incriminate him.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
A stunningly crafted work from first-time feature director Nicole Kassell.
