Review: The Woodsman

Posted by: Tom Milroy  •  January 21, 2005 @ 11:59am

Filed under: Reviews

Kevin Bacon caught my attention not in Footloose but in a small role in JFK. He played a gay convict. In The Woodsman, he plays a paroled molester of young girls. After serving a dozen years in prison, he is free, but to what??? He lives in a cheap apartment, right across from a school yard. His only friend is brother-in-law Benjamin Bratt. Even his sister won't have anything to do with him.

Bacon's character Walter gets a job in a lumberyard where he meets up with a fellow worker played by his real-life wife Kyra Sedgwick. When Walter pays a court-ordered visit to his therapist once a week, he wonders when he'll be able to feel normal.

When his secret is discovered at work, Walter seems about ready to return to his evil ways, asking a young girl if she'd like to sit on his lap (she doesn't). It's an uncomfortable scene and while Walter's crimes are unspeakably evil, you can't help but feel at least a little sorry for the guy. There's no happy ending for Walter, but again, it's not all bleak either.

Mos Def does a nice turn as a police officer and Eve plays the busybody at the lumberyard.

This is not a perfect movie by any means, but it is an interesting look at what life is like when you are miles and miles away from normal.