The Woodsman (2004)
Directed by Nicole Kassell
After twelve years in prison, Walter returns home. His family has abandoned him, save for his brother-in-law. Few know he's a sex offender and pedophile. Walter finds an apartment and is regularly visited by his parole officer. He gets a job at a lumber mill and starts seeing a coworker. Then his new world begins to unravel; as his past becomes known, he strikes up a high-risk friendship with a young girl and realizes that a man loitering near a schoolyard is a child molester prowling for his next victim.
8 connections found
View:
8 films that influenced The Woodsman
What critics say influenced The Woodsman
Though Kassell falls into typical first-time filmmaker traps with some heavy-handed Little Red Riding Hood allegory and an over-reliance on ‘70s aesthetic rip-offs (a poignant sex scene references Don’t Look Now), at least she’s using the tried and true cinematic tools of former masters Nicolas Roeg and Hal Ashby.
In a performance that suggests Anybodys in a dinner-theater production of West Side Story, Kyra Sedgwick plays a tomboy forklift operator whose tough talk breaks through Bacon's somnambulant bubble.
To date, the best-known of these is, of course, Stanley Kubrick's Lolita.
I donât mean to be cynical, and I have no beef with a sympathetic take on child molesters so long as itâs done right, as it was in Todd Solondzâs Happiness, Andrew Jareckiâs barely documentary Capturing the Friedmans, and most admirably in Karen Moncrieffâs Blue Car, in which David Strathairn played a high school teacher unable to draw the line between mentoring and seduction.
Advertisement
But producer Lee Daniels is no stranger to controversy, having also produced the provocative "Monster's Ball," which garnered Halle Berry a best-actress Oscar.
From the producer (Lee Daniels) of "Monster's Ball," to which "The Woodsman" unleashes the same mesmerizing power about the darker side of life, first time feature director Nicole Kassell shows a definite flair for handling her cast in this unsettling tale of regret, remorse, and redemption.
I donât mean to be cynical, and I have no beef with a sympathetic take on child molesters so long as itâs done right, as it was in Todd Solondzâs Happiness, Andrew Jareckiâs barely documentary Capturing the Friedmans, and most admirably in Karen Moncrieffâs Blue Car, in which David Strathairn played a high school teacher unable to draw the line between mentoring and seduction.
People rightly talk about the courage exhibited by Charlize Theron to play the convicted serial killer in Monster .
Remember that film "Monster" was another earnest but not completely satisfying movie containing a singularly perfect performance.
The Woodsman has a lot in common with last year's Monster.
Bacon's superlative performance is on a par with Robert De Niro's work in "Taxi Driver" and Charlize Theron's in "Monster."
Bacon's superlative performance is on a par with Robert De Niro's work in "Taxi Driver" and Charlize Theron's in "Monster."