The troubled protagonist of this impressively clear-sighted film has spent a dozen years in prison for child molestation. Newly released, Walter (Bacon) is trying to get his life back on track. He lands a job at a lumberyard in Philadelphia, begins a tentative romance with a coworker (Sedgwick) and does his best to suppress the urges he still feels. The Woodsman, sensitively directed and cowritten by first-time filmmaker Nicole Kassell, presents a realistic, if guardedly optimistic, look at Walter's prospects for overcoming his sickness. In an intense performance, Bacon shines brightly as a man only slowly beginning to understand why what he wants can never ever be had. (R)
