Milkduds

The Woodsman (8/10)

June 4th, 2005

Kevin Bacon stars as Walter in The Woodsman, a story about the struggle of a convicted pedophile returning to society after being in prison for 12 years. He deals with such issues as starting new relationships, mending broken ones, watching another pedophile prey on kids at a school across the street from his apartment, and coming to grips with his problem and his past.

This is, bar none, Kevin Bacon’s finest performance. However, I feel that this movie didn’t get as much viewing from potential Academy members because of it’s controversial nature. He has one of the creepiest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie, that isn’t horror or thriller based. His demeanor is very mellow and shy during the whole movie, but in this scene where he meets a 12 year old for the second time, he tries to gain her trust and have her sit on his lap. He suddenly becomes more outgoing and friendly to do this, and it really creeped me out.

The movie as a whole, is also very good. I think it had a decent balance of making the audience sympathetic towards the character, but also showing his dark side so we don’t get a false sense of security about his kind. It was objective by displaying the obstacles a person like that might have to overcome both psychologically and in society.

Entry Filed under: Movies