The Woodsman has a striking amount in common with last year's sleeper hit, Monster. It's a poised first feature from a bright new woman director, in this case Nicole Kassell. After a bidding war at Sundance earlier this year, it was snapped up by the same US distributor for more than $1.2 million. And, just as Charlize Theron earned an Oscar for Monster, Kevin Bacon's brave performance in The Woodsman has made him a hot tip for the end-of-year awards season.
But the most remarkable quality the two movies share is that they take the audience deep inside the heart and mind of a social pariah.
If anything, Bacon's character is even more of a monster than Theron's serial killer: he is a convicted paedophile. Released after a 12-year prison sentence, he gets a job in a Philadelphia lumber yard and, somewhat improbably, is given a small apartment overlooking a primary school. This presents him with daily temptation - as well as a more complex dilemma when he spots another child molester lurking outside its gates.
The film tracks his painful struggle to re-enter the community: his relations with his therapist, with a suspicious detective, with his brother-in-law, whose loyal friendship does not extend to allowing the black sheep anywhere near his own daughter, and with a ballsy workmate (played by Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon's off-screen wife), who has her own history of childhood damage.
The story is based on a play, but is opened up dynamically enough to conceal these origins: Kassell was recently approached by Michael Douglas to adapt another stage piece for him, Arthur Miller's The Ride Down Mt Morgan.
There's no suggestion that the woodsman was really innocent, or that he's over his perversion: a disturbing encounter with a little red riding hood in a nearby park forces him to stare down his demons, though one suspects they will always be with him.
Often cast in high-energy, borderline manic roles, Bacon creates here a sad, lank-haired, introverted character who doesn't fish for sympathy and, for that very reason, and against all odds, ends up winning it.
The Woodsman
Cert: cert15
