Der Dämon in mir

I saw this movie at the Vancouver Film Festival. Not only was it one of the best movies I saw at the fest, but one of the best of the year. I truly believed it to be Bacon's career performance.

The script is solid, full of great dialogue and thick symbolism. The characters all fully developed and never one-sided. Each has their dark side. A commendable effort to Emmy winner, Mos Def, who makes us hate him when he's a good cop, and love him when he's a bad one.

The reason the rating is so low is because it's hard to accept a character that is a child molester. Probably because everyone knows someone or is someone who has been sexually abused. This is a film about redemption and forgiveness--something we can all definitely agree with. It is also a story about humanity--something we all have in common.

The journeyman actor Kevin Bacon blows most of the current Oscar Best Actor competition out of the water with his searing portrayal of a paroled pedophile in The Woodsman. The difficult subject matter may spell box-office suicide for this film, particularly at Christmas time. However, if Newmarket Films is smart, they will market this the same way Monster was promoted for Charlize Theron's performance.

Bacon employs a minimalist acting style and submerges himself into this complex character, on the strength of his physicality alone. Thin and gaunt, hair darkened, eyes dead, and jaw severely set, Bacon doesn't waste a facial muscle or telegraph anything more than necessary. He allows us to get into the character's head piece by piece, and it's not always a pleasant place to be. Bacon is uncompromising in his refusal to make anything about the character trivial and sentimental, and that is the key to his success in making Walter such a vivid, believable man.

The screenplay seems to almost be stripped bare, with little actually revealed through dialogue. However, monologues are used to great effect.

Bacon's mesmerizing performance is enhanced by astute direction from first-timer Nicole Kassell, who also adapted the screenplay with the original playwright, Steven Fechter. The cast is superb-Benjamin Bratt, Kyra Sedgwick, David Alan Grier, the beautiful Eve, and best of all, Mos Def, who steals virtually every scene he is in against Bacon, no small task. for those celebrity-watchers, Madonna's baby's daddy, Carlos Leon (father of Lourdes) is in a few scenes.

This is a must-see for Bacon's work, and for the tasteful, intelligent way the subject matter is handled. In short, Tough material, good solid film.

I know this is a controversial subject and will most likely not earn Kevin Bacon - or at least the movie makers - any good points with a lot of people, but I urge people to keep an open mind.

Walter - Kevin Bacon - is released after 12 years in prison for child molestation. He is trying to get back on track when he meets Vickie - Kyra Sedgwick - who makes him feel a bit better about himself. The movie portrays Walter's struggle with his past, his crime and his new life.

The characters and the crime are not romanticized. The movie can even a bit abrasive as it drills down to the truth and shows you the things just as they are.

I think it takes guts to portray a controversial subject like this one and I certainly think it takes guts to play a role like Walter's. Excellent performances by Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick and Mos Def.

This is a somewhat slow (never boring) film with several performances of the highest quality. Kyra Sedgwick has amazing scenes, and one in particular flipped around my perception of every other character's motivation. David Alan Grier's performance is, maybe for the first time, not over the top. Hannah Pilkes, in her first film, nearly steals the scene from Kevin Bacon. Eve and Benjamin Bratt both do a good job. Mos Def's lines are either beyond his range or the lines themselves are just too heavy-handed, but Kevin plays off of them in brilliant silence.

Kevin Bacon's performance is Oscar-worthy. In other films, weak effects, poor acting, awful dialog, etc., have pulled me out of the world that the film was attempting to create. Kevin's performance is so good that at one time I found myself pulled out of the experience in awe; while continuing to believe the truth of the character, I was at the same time floored by Kevin's ability to deliver such depth.

Sure, the subject matter allows actors to express strong feeling. Anger is an easy route, as is self-loathing. This script has some of that, but what makes this film great is that primarily it chooses to explore shame and the struggle to be normal. The actors (Bacon, Kira, Pilkes) that are given the opportunity to explore that, they really excel in this film.

An intelligent and thought-provoking film that never flinches from it's subject matter, and includes a superb performance from it's leading man. Kassell's film manages to steer clear of didacticism and lays the misunderstandings and prejudices about, and ignorance of, paedophilia open for the audience to interpret in their own way. The protagonist is neither a sympathetic hero or a villain, but during the course of the film he wavers between the two leaving the audience both supportive and sickened. This amalgam of conflicting emotions makes 'The Woodsman' essential viewing for a rational, adult audience. I only wonder how an audience would react to a paedophile played by an unknown actor without Bacon's profile, as I suspect many people would find it harder to accept without his charisma or celebrity attached to the film.