The Woodsman deals with an issue that has rarely been dealt with in a delicate and thoughtful manner. Everyday, some sensationalist story about how the evil underworld of paedophiles attempt to corrupt our children can be read in any of the red top newspapers. This film offers an alternative representation. It explores this taboo subject in a more thoughtful way and gives this ‘inhuman evil’ a human face.

The film is a kind of character in transition study of a convicted paedophile called Walter. After serving a 12 year prison sentence, Walter returns to his hometown and attempts to start a new life. This is not easy for him. He knows he is ill and is constantly asking his psychiatrist and himself ‘when will I be normal?’ Despite this self-awareness, he struggles to control his urges and finds it even harder to live with himself in the knowledge that he might do ‘bad things’. We never learn the exact nature of his past transgressions but he tells his psychiatrist that he never physically hurt the girls he molested – suggesting the damage was more of a psychological nature but not denying sexual physical contact.

The film does not try and generalise and never does it allude to Walter as being the typical child molester. There are no bags of sweets, no rainmacs. This film is not about Paedophilia. It is about a man called Walter, who is a convicted paedophile.
Walter is given a human face by Kevin Bacon. In an outstanding performance that highlights Walters depth of complexity, Bacon’s face conveys a dark past – its all in the eyes. His face is often used instead of dialogue, as he is not exactly the most open person when it comes to communicating his feelings. Instead, the expressions on his face do all the communicating. Kevin Bacon was disgracefully overlooked an Oscar nomination for this performance.

Walter has been relocated next to a school (of all places), which provides the film with a constant source of tension as he could fold under the pressure of his disturbing impulses at any time. His struggle is highlighted by the keen interest he pays in a man who regularly hangs around outside the school playground. He is someone Walter knows with great intimacy. He is the man he has been and could be again. I was slightly disappointed to find out that this man was an actual paedophile who was wanted by the police. I thought it would have been far more interesting for him to be a paranoid construct of Walters mind or even a self fulfilling fantasy that purely represented his own bad urges. Towards the end of the film, Walter severely beats this man and through some ingenious editing techniques it briefly appears to look like Walter is beating himself. This film is about his journey along the road to redemption that can only be reached by confronting his illness and avoiding the temptation at every turn.

The film is shot well and the director has drawn some strong performances from the cast, the only exception being a minor character played by Hip Hop performer Eve. She displays a complete lack of acting ability and her involvement may or may not have something to do with the influence of Executive Producer, Hip Hop Guru Damon Dash. In an open attempt to gain instant credibility he chose this as the film to launch his producing career. The first credit in the opening scene is that of ‘Dash Productions’. A surprisingly impressive performance, again probably something to do with Dash’s Dollars, was that from Mos Def playing a police sergeant who keeps a watchful eye on Walter and his actions. He plays it with a world-weariness that is utterly convincing and understandable considering his characters gruesome accounts of previous child molestation cases. At one point during one of several visits he pays on Walter he asks ‘Why is it they let freaks like you out?’ then states ‘It means we have to catch you all over again’.

Despite some good performances (bar the abysmal Eve) and some interesting camera work, this is a flawed film. I think that more psychological background to Walter would have helped create a deeper understanding. It would also help answer a question that the film seems to shy away from. Why? Sure, this is not what the film is necessarily about but there is the danger of overlooking reasons for peoples actions that can breed ignorance, even in a fiction like this that is focused on the present and the future. Bacon’s performance is well judged and accurately depicts a man taking each day; each hour at a time and that is fine. It’s just that the script fails to look beyond the surface of the psychology involved and leaves many questions unanswered. Also, the film seems to have conflicting views on mob rule justice. In a scene where Walters past is exposed and he is pushed around by his colleagues at work, we are supposed to sympathise. Later, after beating the playground paedophile, he seems to gain satisfaction in the muted respect offered by the police Sergeant.

The most important and most powerful scene in the film involves Walter alone on a park bench with an incredibly vulnerable 13 year old girl. The scene is superbly constructed and is the films standout moment. It reaches its conclusion via an unexpected twist that provides Walter with a new perspective, allowing him to see his desires/illness for what they really are – selfish acts of corruption that cause irreparable emotional and psychological damage. The dialogue in this scene is intelligent in how it contrasts detail with ambiguity and is delivered brilliantly by both characters. The overall tone is one of memorising discomfort, the autumnal park setting adding to the haunting fairytale theme that is used metaphorically throughout the film. You may have noticed that I have refrained from using the word ‘evil’ throughout the majority of this review. That is because of a profound sentence I have recently read in an article concerning this film. A reviewer stated that there are no evil people just evil acts. This is the films message. Walter is not evil, his previous acts were. Walter is just a man. A man who has an incredibly sick sexual perversion. A man who has corrupted innocence in the worst possible way. But he is not the devil incarnate, he is just a man.

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