The Woodsman
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Movie Reviews of The Woodsman
Movie Review: Little Red Riding Hood
Summary: 5 Stars
As I left the theater, I thought to myself: How am I going to write this review? This movie needs to be experienced, to be felt. Then when I looked at the other reviews here on Amazon, I saw that the "experiences" were already covered in detail, so I decided that gave me some leeway.
This is a film about a pedophile, and the struggles he experiences after his release from prison, both with the people in his life and the emotions that boil inside of him. My review is going to focus mainly on the specific events involving him and his pedophilia.
Many viewers likely have difficulty separating the fiction of the movie from the reality of the horrors of child molestation, which probably explains its dismal rating (currently 5.6 out of 10) on pro.imdb.com (the professional version of the Internet Movie Database). They probably feel disgust - and they *should* feel disgust. There is no worse crime than stealing the life of a child. This film was also shunned by the Golden Globes, which means it will likely receive no nods from the Academy, which is much more conservative. That is a pity, because at the very least Kevin Bacon puts on an amazing performance deserves at least a nomination.
Walter (Bacon) is acutely aware of his disease, and he despises himself for it. One can see it in the self-hatred in his eyes, and in the gruff manner in which he treats others. The gruffness, however, probably arose from spending twelve years in prison, where even amongst criminals there is a code of honor: murder, rape, thieve all you want - just never, ever molest a child. While it's never discussed, we can assume that Walter himself was horrifically abused during those twelve years.
Somewhat unbelievably, upon Walter's release from prison, he secures an apartment that is directly across from an elementary school, although it is explained that no other landlord would take his money. His brother-in-law brings him a table, which Walter made as a wedding present for his sister and brother-in-law. Carlos (Benjamin Bratt) says that he's returning it to please his wife. We understand that means that Walter's sister has such hatred, disdain, and an inability to forgive him that she wants nothing of his in her house. Walter places the table in front of a window that overlooks the school's playground, where he either watches, or writes in a journal, which his therapist encouraged him to do. In that journal he speaks of his continuing struggle with his attraction to young girls - and also the very conspicuous stalking of an obvious child molester who is interested in boys. Walter records him in his journal as "candy", and one wonders why Walter doesn't immediately turn him in. He certainly has the opportunity, as he has assigned parole as well as a Sergeant that visits him from time to time to make him feel who takes it upon himself to make Walter feel even worse about himself. Perhaps Walter never turned on "candy" because he still found himself entranced by young girls. That is understandable, even if it is disgusting and revolting.
We also know that he is aware of his abnormality because he speaks of it to his therapist, saying on repeated occasions that he wants to be normal - and normal for him means "looking at a girl and not..." He leaves it at that, but we know what he means. He wants desperately to look at a girl - between the ages of 10 and 12 - and have no desires for her.
Although never directly discussed in the film, there is a scene with his therapist that very strongly suggests a sexual relation between him and his sister, and this likely explains his very specific age range. The therapist asks for his first recollection of sexual feelings, and Walter describes an event where he was taking a nap with his sister and smelling her hair. He was six, and she was four. Walter repeated several times that he enjoyed smelling her hair. The therapist asked him how this progressed over time, and when the age that the therapist approached began to touch on the limits of the girls Walter molested, Walter began to cry and ultimately refused to continue. One can only imagine what took place between the two of them, but whatever it is, Walter's self-reproach is plain. It's also one of the best acted spots in the film.
Walter takes the bus to work, and the bus serves as a catalyst for two things. First, a relationship with a woman (played by Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon's wife) who herself was sexually abused by her brothers when she was younger. When she shares that with Walter, he says to her, "You must hate them". Her reply explains her relationship with him: "No, I love all of them". How she found the ability to forgive them we never know. These situations are complicated.
Second, a young girl rides the bus that he finds attractive. One day he doesn't get off at his stop and he follows her into a park where she's looking at birds. He strikes up a conversation with her, and it's very difficult as an audience member to watch this dialogue. Part of you can't help but care about Walter, because even though you know he has molested young girls (and therefore a part of you loathes him), you see the burning desire for redemption within him and you want him to succeed at becoming "normal". The girl breaks off the conversation and leaves, but not uncomfortably - in fact, she seems very comfortable with him. Nevertheless, Walter wears his guilt like the weight of a galaxy on his shoulders, and he slumps home.
A jealous girl who he originally shunned found out that he was a child molester, and started distributing flyers around the lumberyard where he works with his picture and the nature of his offense. The guys jump on him, he gets slugged a time or two in the gut, and while he originally goes on the floor to work, he walks off early, and finds himself back in the park where he talked to the birdwatcher. He sits on a bench, ostensibly waiting for her to come, and eventually she does, sitting down beside him. Then begins the most uncomfortable part of the film. After some conversation, Walter asks her age (that's part of his M.O. - establish their age), and then asks if she wants to sit on his lap. You can almost hear the collective groan in the theater when he asks this, because you can feel him slipping away into the darkness of his disease again - and we know that if he molests this girl, or even if he is seen sitting next to her, never mind with her on his lap, that he is going back to jail. She says no, and a look of regret and longing wash over Walter's face. Then he asks if her Daddy lets her sit in his lap. She says yes, and he asks if she likes it. And here's the surprise: she says no, and starts to cry.
I'm going to leave it at that, because that in itself is divulging too much of what I feel needs to be experienced. The only other thing I'll say is that the sergeant who is assigned to him shared with him a metaphor earlier in the film, that of the woodsman from Little Red Riding Hood. The woodsman was the character who cut Little Red Riding Hood out of the wolves belly.
The girl on the bus, the birdwatcher, wore a red cape-like jacket.
Movie Review: A great film on a disturbing subject
Summary: 5 Stars
Kevin Bacon gives the performance of a lifetime in "The Woodsman," an astonishingly brave film that confronts an issue few moviemakers have ever had the courage to tackle - pedophilia. Child molesters have become the true monsters of the modern psyche. So repelled are we by their behavior that we shun even the most basic attempts to try and "understand" them. For pedophiles violate that most sacred duty adults have of protecting children from harm at any and all costs. It is for this reason that even the most hardened criminal will often recoil at the actions of a child molester. It's small wonder, then, that filmmakers have been so reluctant to approach this hyper-sensitive subject. Who wants to open himself up to all the slings and arrows that will inevitably come flying his way the moment he puts this topic on the screen? For no matter how evenhanded and subtle the treatment, any writer or director courageous enough to take on the issue will have to face the charge of trying to "humanize" those whom it is far easier for the rest of us to continue thinking of as subhuman. But what price do we pay for such an attitude? Don't we stand a better chance of overcoming this tragic problem by trying to comprehend the mindset of pedophiles rather than calling them "monsters" and, thus, dismissing them out of hand?
Those who made "The Woodsman" certainly think so, for they have come up with a finely crafted study that neither sugarcoats the tragic effects of pedophilia nor demonizes the people who commit the act. Bacon plays Walter, a 45-year-old man who has just been paroled after a twelve-year sentence for molesting two underage girls. Even though he is wracked with guilt and self-hatred and seems to want to "change" his ways now that he`s back on the outside, Walter has, unwisely, chosen to place himself in the way of temptation by renting an apartment directly across the street from an elementary school, where he not only gets a full view of the students there, but also keeps a watchful eye on another pedophile operating the turf. Walter has also found employment at a local lumber company where he meets a young woman who is strangely attracted to him and who insists on knowing just what the "secret" is that has placed such an obvious burden on the man's soul and spirit. For Walter is a man waging a war on two fronts: one against the outside world that wants to revile rather than understand him, and the other against his own personal demons of temptation, guilt and self-loathing. It is here where Bacon truly triumphs as an actor, for he never allows us to forget the titanic struggle taking place within this man's tormented psyche. In every movement, every gesture, every line spoken and unspoken, the pain is there for us to see.
At one point, crushed with the burden of living with this aspect of his character that he himself cannot explain, he breaks down in despair crying "I am not a monster." And he finds "redemption" of sorts when he turns on another pedophile, acting out of the same kind of rage that has been vented on him all these years. It's as disturbing and unsettling a moment for the audience as it is for the character, for we really don't know how we are supposed to react to this incident. Are we to cheer Walter for performing an act of righteous anger, or are we to see him as a pathetic figure taking his frustrations out on a person who should be eliciting his empathy not provoking his outrage? Or is it a form of sublimation, lashing out at the part of himself he has come so much to hate? Indeed, it is this very moral ambiguity, this refusal to see things in black-and-white terms that makes this such a challenging, thought provoking and adult movie.
What is most striking about "The Woodsman" is that writer Steven Fetcher and director Nicole Kassell never sensationalize their subject matter. The tone of the film is moody and subdued throughout, perfectly reflected in the harsh drabness of a working class neighborhood. Kassell stays primarily focused on Walter as he goes about his business of trying to get through each and every day as best he can. She also provides a few brilliant touches that demonstrate her skill and artistry as a director. For instance, in one scene Walter is riding on a bus when he notices a young girl sitting a few seats in front of him. We see him pull the cord to get off at the next stop. Then, Kassell gives us a shot of the door opening and closing with no one having walked through it, indicating, in a subtle and oblique way, that Walter has chosen to stay on the bus so he can follow the girl as she gets off at her stop. Similarly, Kassell keeps the camera inside the bus as we see the girl walking to a nearby park. For a moment, we are led to believe that perhaps we are seeing all this through Walter's eyes - that he has actually chosen to stay on the bus and not pursue his intended victim. But then the camera cuts to a shot from outside the bus and we see that Walter, much to our dismay, has, indeed, stepped off.
In addition to Bacon, there are stunning performances from Kyra Sedgwick as Vickie, the girl who sees some value in Walter that others cannot see; Benjamin Bratt as Walter's sympathetic brother-in-law who, Walter believes, may be having sexual feelings for his own 12-year-old daughter; and Hannah Pilkes, as the little girl who may be Walter's next victim.
"The Woodsman" is probably the first serious attempt to make a thoughtful movie about a child molester since Fritz Lang's "M" in 1930. Those who would accuse "The Woodsman" of trying to generate sympathy for pedophiles are probably barking up the wrong tree here, for if the film shows us anything, it is that even a "reformed" molester can continue to pose a threat to children, even after he has "paid his debt to society." I suspect that the police officer in the film speaks for a large segment of the population when he wonders aloud why the justice system doesn't just keep such people locked up for the duration of their lives. It is a measure of the complexity of this problem that the filmmakers seem as conflicted on this matter as the audience is.
And that`s what makes "The Woodsman" such a great film in the end.
Movie Review: Great psychological study
Summary: 5 Stars
Released in 2005, "The Woodsman" tells the story of Walter (Kevin Bacon) who's trying to make a life for himself in Philadelphia after spending 12 years in prison due to his abnormal predilection for 10-12 year-old girls. When news gets out of why he was in prison it causes problems with his girlfriend Vicki (Kyra Sedgwick) and at his new job. Walter desperately seeks healing from his condition even while he occasionally flirts with his sick desires. On top of this is Walter's parole officer who doesn't believe he can be trusted in conventional society. Meanwhile Walter spots a pedophile preying on children at the local elementary school. What should he do? And is there any hope for him to escape his condition?
There are two things potential viewers should know up front: Walter is aware of his problem and desires freedom from it; in other words, he's repentant -- he wants to turn from his negative/destructive desires and channel his sexual energy positively and responsibly. Secondly, it becomes clear that Walter is not guilty of raping any girls but rather molesting them by getting his jollies with them on his lap (fully clothed). Yes, it's still bad, but not as bad as raping or killing. These are important points that help the viewer have compassion on Walter and root for his success in the story (because if he was unrepentant and guilty of actually raping or killing girls then please fry his butt and get it over with -- or, at least, lock him up and throw away the key).
As noted in the title blurb, the film is a dramatic psychological study. It spotlights the classic struggle of flesh & spirit or id & ego. It's dialogue-driven and plot-driven rather than action-driven or cgi-driven. In other words, this is a thinking-person's film. Needless to say, uber-fans of conventional blockbusters should stay away.
In a way, Walter's struggle is universal and most of us can relate to it on one level or another. For example. We may not have a predilection for tweenage girls but we might struggle with other negative tendencies, like alcoholism, drugs, adultery, fits of rage, porn addiction, gluttony, sloth, depression, lying, etc. The film subtly makes it clear that without love & belief there's little hope of spiritual metamorphosis.
(MINOR SPOILER: The next two paragraphs explore one of the main insights of the story and comments on one important scene)
One of the main points of the film is distinguishing a repentant pedophile from a non-repentant one. Walter has come to a place where he understands that his pedophile desires are of his flesh (i.e. id or destructive carnal nature) and should not be embraced, fed and acted upon (although, again, he flirts with the idea on a couple occasions). Walter KNOWS that to take advantage of young girls and have sexual relations with them is wrong, and is trying to walk free of such desires. This is contrasted by the predatory pedophile who hangs out by the school preying on kids. This guy obviously embraces, feeds and acts on his pedophile desires. There's a big difference between these two. The attitude of the heart makes all the difference. Walter deserves a second chance because he's repentant and trying to change for the positive, even while he should be monitered closely; the other guy, on the other hand, has totally given himself over to his perverted desires and deserves the snot beat out of him (at the very least).
One critic argues that it's not realistic that a 45 year-old guy sits on a bench in the park and a cute 11 year-old girl sits herself next to him and asks, "How's the view?" But, wait a second, Walter had previously met the girl so she was already familiar with him; he didn't hurt her before, why would he hurt her now? Besides, the girl comes from a dysfunctional home where she suffers molestation from her dad; hence, it's not likely that she has the best understanding and discretion concerning social situations, not to mention her inner need and compulsion for masculine love and attention (since she's not getting it from her father). In addition, Walter was obviously drawn to and comfortable around little girls, which helped make the girl feel safe around him.
(END SPOILER)
Another criticism is that the film is melancholy and plays out in a flat manner. This is true but don't you think a bit o' melancholy fits the subject matter? As for the story being flat, the filmmakers (Nichole Kassell and Steven Fechter) were obviously shooting for realism. Isn't real life kind of flat? Personally I prefer realism over the goofiness, overkill action/cgi and generally unbelievable tone of many modern pictures.
The film was shot on location in Philadelphia and runs a short-but-sweet 87 minutes.
Interesting tidbit: Kevin Bacon and co-star Kyra Sedgwick have been married since 1988 and have 2 children.
FINAL ANALYSIS: As long as you can handle the subject matter and a couple of cringe-inducing spots, "The Woodsman" is outstanding if you're in the mood for a serious drama or psychological study.
P.S. Be sure to catch the delelted scene of Walter and Robin's discussion at the bench. The fuller version should never have been deleted; you'll see why when you compare the sequences.
Movie Review: Kevin Bacon's memorable performance in a provocative film
Summary: 5 Stars
I think that child molesters are arguably the criminals who are most fortunate the U.S. Constitution has a prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. It is common knowledge that in the prison hierarchy child molesters represent the bottom most rung. How many times have you heard about pedophiles who are released from serving time in prison and communities be outraged to discover there is a convicted sex offender in their neighborhood? Another part of conventional wisdom, those things that everybody knows regardless of the facts, it that child molesters are never cured. However, findings indicate that sex offender treatment reduces the likelihood of sexual recidivism to only 10 (those who do not go through treatment have a recidivism rate of 17 percent). In other words most pedophiles do not repeat their offense and experts agree that with successful completion of a specialized treatment program those who sexually abuse children can learn how to control their actions.
Such statistics certainly surprised me, but I kept them in mind while watching "The Woodsman." The title character is Walter (Kevin Bacon), who has spent a dozen years in prison for molesting young girls. Of course, by the time this 2004 film came out on DVD this week the character Bacon was playing in this film was pretty well known, but make an effort to notice how the character is established before his crime is revealed. There are plenty of clues that clearly indicate it, and we know from the start he is an ex-con, but director Nicole Kassell knows how the cards are stacked against pedophiles and wants the audience to be sympathetic at least toward Walter's plight. He knows what he did is wrong, is disgusted by his behavior, and wants to be "normal." He is clearly making an effort to go straight, which is exactly what society demands, and we are supposed to at least endorse the effort even if we despise the person making the effort.
However, going straight is not going to be easy. The only place that will rent an apartment to an ex-con is across the street from an elementary school and the cop (Mos Def) who comes by to check on him in anticipation of Walter making the same mistake knows this is not a good sign. His brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt) comes by to visit but makes it clear Walter's sister wants nothing to do with him. When Walter is in therapy it becomes clear she is the source of his pathology, so we can hardly blame her. Meanwhile, when Walter looks out his window at the schoolyard and sees a suspicious man hanging around the schoolyard giving candy to young boys. At works things are almost manageable. Walter worked there before his arrest and the son of the previous owner (David Allan Greer) hires him. The office assistant (Mary-Kay) is suspicious of Walter, but Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick), who drives a forklift, is attracted to him. Of course, she does not know his secret, although clearly he has one. Then there is Robin (Hannah Pilkes), the young girl who rides the same bus he takes home from work and who gets off to work in the park.
We know that Walter is going to come to a crisis point in his life and that it could go either way. That doubt is essential to the film and it is carried off not only Kassell's screenplay of Steven Fechter's play, but mostly by Kevin Bacon's performance. He was overlooked in "Mystic River" while co-stars Shawn Penn and Tim Robbins were (deservedly) winning Oscars for their performances and he was overlooked for what he did in this film, which is being universally acclaimed as his best. Bacon's film career might be a game but his acting is certainly not a joke and I do not think that anybody who has followed his career are really surprised by his performance here. "The Woodsman" comes down to a scene in the park and a moment where Bacon's face is wonderfully transformed by a surprising revelation. The script crafts the moment, but it is Bacon who carries it off.
The DVD only has three deleted/extended scenes but two of them are extremely interesting in terms of the decisions that were made on the final cut of this film. One makes explicit the implicit reasons why Vickie chooses to be with Walter (implicit is better) and the other provides a significant variation on the pivotal scene between Walter and Robin. I was wondering why Walter did not do something along the lines of what he does in this alternative version, which would have changed the final act of the film considerably. I would have loved to have heard the conversation where they made the decision to go the way they did in the finished film, but you can still meditate on what differences this would have made in how everything played out. It is worth thinking about.
Movie Review: A Profoundly Disturbing Theme, A Wholly Successful Film!
Summary: 5 Stars
THE WOODSMAN is the kind of film that took maximum courage to create on behalf of the entire crew - writer Steven Fechter (who wrote the screenplay from his stage play), director Nicole Kassell, the producers, and of course the actors. So committed to this project that they also produced this wondrous film, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick also have assumed the leading roles of this controversial drama and in doing so give us the finest performances of their distinguished careers.
We, as society, play a major role in this story because it is very much about how we judge people, how we deal with those who have been incarcerated, and how we hold onto our intolerances for those who are out of the norm. Placing ourselves in the judgmental role makes the impact of this film that much more devastating.
Walter (Kevin Bacon) has just been released from a 12-year prison term for molesting young girls and returns to his home to find a job in a lumberyard under the careful scrutiny of Bob (David Alan Grier) his boss. Mary-Kay (Eve) his co-worker tries to come on to him and is rebuffed by Walter, a man who lives in dark loneliness, filled with guilt and self-loathing, afraid to allow any sort of closeness with anyone. He rents an apartment across from a schoolyard ('the only landlord who would take my money') where he observes from his window the source of his past (and +/- present) temptation - little girls at play. He also observes a young man approaching young boys, mirroring his own history of pedophilia, a view that will permanently alter his self-concept later in the film.
Walter meets Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick), finds it odd that a beautiful woman would be a laborer in a lumberyard of men, and after a time the two share a beer and end up in bed. Vickie eventually pries out Walter's reason for his incarceration, and while shocked she does not flee but instead shares her darkest secret that her three brothers molested her as a child.
Noting Walter's developing relationship with Vickie, Mary-Kay finds the truth about Walter's past and makes it known to the entire lumberyard in the cruelest of ways. The injured Walter moves in with Vickie, continues seeing his therapist Rosen (Michael Shannon), his brother in law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), and his parole officer Sgt Lucas (Mos Def), and we slowly learn that Walter has a conflict with his sister with whom he napped as a child 'to smell her hair' (an act coupled with his history of pedophilia that makes his sister refuse to see him despite Carlos' good attempt to re-join them).
Along the way Walter encounters a 12-year-old girl Robin (Hannah Pilkes) who is also a loner and birdwatcher and we are allowed to see how Walter's recidivism surfaces as he longs for physical contact with Robin. Yet in a sensitive scene between the two, the spectrum of perpetrator and victim is played out solely through words: Walter invites Robin to sit on is lap only to discover that Robin's father has been showing the same behavior and what is communicated between the two is some of the most healing dialogue ever written.
The manner in which this story ends is very much left up to the viewer (remember we are part of the film) to decide. The pacing of this tale, the minimal dialogue, the quiet of the gritty atmosphere - all of these contribute to the profound effect that is achieved in the brilliant performance by Kevin Bacon. Rarely has an actor captured the angst, the internalization, the bleakness of injured life after prison, and the longing for redemption that Bacon achieves with his face, his eyes, his body language and his manner of delivering his lines. Kyra Sedgwick is likewise extraordinarily powerful as the damaged woman who allows her rigid lonely life to embrace the likes of Walter. The supporting cast is uniformly outstanding, especially Hannah Pilkes as Robin, and Benjamin Bratt as Carlos.
This may be the first film for Nicole Kassell but is surely won't be the last. She is a brilliant director who has mastered her resources and carved a treasure of a film. One can shout against the awards people for being so intimidated by the subject matter to prevent Kevin Bacon from being crowned for his penultimate achievement, but people forget who won the awards as soon as they are over: people can't forget the power of Bacon's performance. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, April 05