The Woodsman

Kevin Bacon delivers a startling performance in the uber controversial drama The Woodsman, but much of his excellent work is compromised by the way that the filmmakers ultimately deal with the troubling subject matter. A gaunt Bacon plays Walter, a convicted paedophile who has just been released from prison after serving 12 years for molesting young girls. Returning to his home patch in a rundown Philadelphia, he finds lodgings in a halfway house that is uncomfortably located, just across the road from a children's school. Getting a job as a factory woodcutter, his mundane existence is punctuated by weekly visits to his therapist and from his well-meaning but simple-minded brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt). A co-worker at the plant, Vickie (Bacon's real-life wife Kyra Sedgwick) notices him and offers her friendship, which soon blossoms into something else. But don't think that Walter is getting his life back on track as he's haunted by his abhorrent impulses, while cop Sgt. Lucas (Mos Def, utterly superb) is intent on making sure that Walter never forgets his crimes...

The Woodsman is an unquestionably brave movie; yet it's unfortunate that the film seems unable to come to terms with the paradox of having a paedophile as its central character. Although she directs the film with a low key, edgy grace for the opening half, Nicole Kassell never seems quite comfortable with how much sympathy it is possible to have with a man who has committed unspeakable acts. Perhaps because of this, she makes the mistake of overstating certain characters - most notably the too good to be true Vickie - in her desire to reach the forced redemption which she seems (too) eager to grant Walter. In Kassell's defence, The Woodsman probably would never have been made had there not been some sort of transition in the character, but the way it is documented here feels hollow. Still, see it for Bacon - he's staggering.