Film Review: Redford and Nolte walk away with ‘Woods’
When Robert Redford bought the rights to Bill Bryson’s hiking memoir, “A Walk in the Woods,” he envisioned it as a reunion with Paul Newman, with whom he had famously partnered in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “The Sting” (1973). Newman’s health proved prohibitive, so now the project has come to the screen with Nick Nolte in what would have been Newman’s role.
Bryson is famous both for his travel books and his writings on language. Though American, he’s spent much of his adult life in England. In the ’90s however, he moved to New Hampshire and got the ambitious notion of reacquainting himself with his homeland by hiking the entirety of the Appalachian Trail — which stretches more than 2000 miles from Georgia to Maine, as it wends its way through the mountains.
“Ambitious” isn’t quite the right word; one could more accurately say “the stark raving loony notion.” At the time, Bryson was in his mid-40s, as was his traveling companion, Stephen Katz (a pseudonym). Though they had traveled together in the past, neither of them had experience mountain hiking. And the trek had broken (or even killed) innumerable predecessors who were younger and better equipped. The weather doesn’t always behave, nor do the bears.
In the film, Bryson’s wife (Emma Thompson), apparently a sane person, is vehemently opposed. Things look even grimmer when Katz (Nolte) arrives. Bryson hasn’t seen him in years, and Katz — despite what he’s told Bryson on the phone — has a problematic leg and a host of other health issues, not the least of which is being overweight and desperately out of shape. His attitude is also a drawback; the word “crotchety” doesn’t begin to describe it, but it does let us segue to another issue.
The most significant difference between the page and the screen in this case is the age of the characters, which has been adjusted to fit the casting. Their ages are never specified, but, when the film was in production last year, Redford was 78 and Nolte 73. Redford may be able to pass for someone younger, but not that much.
And, while the age of characters can be shifted in many adaptations, this is one where it really does affect the content. (I doubt I’ll be up for the Appalachian Trail in my 70s, but then I wouldn’t have been back in my mid-40s either ... or, let’s face it, my early 20s.) It adds a greater level of dread over the whole affair. And the dialogue is frequently straight from the book, with only minimal nods to the fact that these two are full-on geezers.
Having said that, if one can suspend disbelief on the issue of age, there’s a lot of fun to be had here ... certainly a lot more fun than in the Reese Witherspoon hiking vehicle “Wild” or Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours.” Director Ken Kwapis has had a mixed feature career: his first film was the 1985 “Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird,” which may still be his best. But then, nobody can trump Big Bird, not even Robert Redford.
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).