Dir: Nicole Kassell
Starring: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Benjamin Bratt, Mos Def, David Alan Grier.

Kevin Bacon has a special place in the Hollywood firmament, somewhere just off the major constellations; usually seen as a supporting actor or key figure in a supporting actor (Mystic River), he rarely enjoys the role of protagonist all to himself in a way that explores the actor's evident ability. Bacon plays a convicted paedophile in "The Woodsman", a film that could change this tendency, where the intriguing mixture of preppy good looks and brooding reserve, together with the Peter Pan element of extended youth in the actor's features combine to make the most of his talents. Not a subject for the average filmmaker or spectator, this original if flawed film presents its case for serious reflection on a subject that verges on the taboo.

Walter has finished his 12 years in jail to return to start life anew in his old hometown, taking up a job at a lumber factory, where he keeps himself to himself. His new home is a rented flat, since his sister refuses to see him, despite his attempts to convince Carlos her husband (Benjamin Bratt), the only person from his old life who is ready to talk to Walter. That his new house is next to a school (pushing credibility for a dramatic turn) raises the suspicions of the moody detective who comes to see him, played by Mos Def the hip-hop singer, in scenes where our attention swivels away from Bacon, only to focus on the what happens next to Walter after each encounter, not so much scene-stealing as scene-swapping. The plot evolves out of separate strands as Walter's reserve and seriousness inspire both affection and aversion in two female colleagues at work; while the scorned girl discovers his past and leaks the news to the others, the feisty Vickie (played by Kyra Sedgewick, Bacon's actual wife) flirts with Walter, adding to the film's disturbing power by showing love scenes between them that would not be unusual in any other film, except for the sombre colours, breaking down the "them and us" assumption which an audience is likely to bring to the subject of paedophile predilections, while we are left wondering what is really going on in Walter's mind.

That of course is the real subject of the film; according to the re-offender statistics he is only passing time before the next offence sends him back to stew in jail. We see from Bacon's air of taut self-revulsion what is passing through his mind without being able to guess how this is going to be worked out. "Normal is when I can be near a girl, talk to a girl, and not think about..." That unspoken content comes close to being voiced on the occasional interior monologue in which Walter becomes the untrustworthy narrator of the film itself. Reading from his diaries he offers us a version of himself which is not free from taint, that does not allow us to fix a point of view on the character morally since we cannot be sure even of the truth of all we see, The publicity poster of the film shows Bacon with a ball in his hands that has, in the film, come out of a child�s playground, leaving him lost in thought. The school gates are closed though, in one of several sequences where what we see are only projections of Walter's largely unspoken inner world. This tension comes to a head in the episodes where Walter observes from his window a young man whom he dubs Candy trying to pick up boys outside the school. Is this reality (why doesn't he call the police?) or a wish fulfilment become masochistic hate object? Reviling Candy, as he eventually does would allow him to join the ranks of the 'normal' people, at least for a moment. The film's weakest moment is when Walter impassively observes Candy at work with the boys leaving school, offering a pseudo-sports commentary on the action, leaving us isolated from any emotional or moral expression on the film's part; a nice idea, and the kookiness is daring, but in this respect Nicole Kassel, the writer/director, hasn't found the means to convey his idea. Later on when Walter asks his rather macho brother in law if he ever had any feelings towards his children, the confrontation of the real and fantasy world is unsettlingly dramatic.

Kassel's auteur qualities are present in the content that the style of his film supports. The film's camera-work and pace lead to a resolution that offers hope without the sunny rays of cinema optimism. Questions hang over the ending, over the apparent conversion of Walter to adult heterosexuality; can we be sure this goes beyond the expression of his desire for integration? Is it really love or another form of disguise - to what extent is such a person capable of adult love when his desires remain fixed on immature objects of desire, nostalgic self-figurations of childhood innocence? Kassel makes what might be called an open film, in this respect, though he does offer Walter a moment to prove his self-worth when he resists his role as the wolf in the park sitting on the same bench as the young girl Robin, taking up the role instead of the saviour in the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the Woodsman, when he realizes the girl he asks to sit on his lap has already heard that invitation from her abusive father. So, no open highway at the end of this film, more of a crossroads. Only the attempt to distinguish Walter from Candy lead to confusions outside the ability of the director to locate or dramatize for us; Walter, so he says, never hurt his victims (psychologically they would be hurt, so this is a lie that the film expects us to believe): Walter likes girls, whereas Candy who looks really mean and untroubled likes boys, and the final confrontation of the two is a sort of reversion to the rough justice that the film has been warning us against. Still, the guiding intuition of the film works out in the representation of a man striving to live according to his conscience. Bacon has said in an interview that it is wrong to see paedophiles simply as monsters, therefore unlike ourselves; "If they were monsters we could send a superhero out to kill them, or a guy with a big sword - and that would make life a lot easier. The reality is much, much more frightening than that - they are friends of the family, in our churches, in our schools, riding on the bus next to us." The film is true to this important insight, and the argument is even more appropriate in a context that the film raises briefly, that of incestuous abuse - Vicky says that she was raped by her three brothers "in chronological order," but still loves them. Recent statistics in America suggest that familial incest is rife, and that half of the known cases of child abuse come from within the family (Todd Solandz's "Happiness" is one of the few films to deal with this). As "The Woodsman" does not demonise, so it does not peddle redemption, taking a long steady look at something many of us would wish (especially in the cinema) to forget.