Review: A Walk in the Woods

There's something really satisfactory about the sound of a tent zipper opening in the wilderness. It's a blatant, beautiful reminder of nature around us, and it immediately thrusts at least this reviewer into outdoorsy reminiscence. If only A WALK IN THE WOODS, Ken Kwapis's film adaptation about two middle-aged men walking the Appalachian Trail, had more of these moments. As is, the film is less about nature than it is about meeting all sorts of characters in all sorts of walks of life, and embracing your mortality.



Bill Bryson (Robert Redford), a writer who has published several books documenting his world travels, is not a people person. That much is clear in the first few minutes of the film. In fact, this briefly-noted and never-again mentioned plot point is what pushes Bill to the idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail: he sees an advertisement of a man standing at the edge of a cliff, serenely surveying the world around him, and thinks that is just the ticket to get him away from all that annoying human interaction. His wife, Catherine (Emma Thompson) doesn't want him to go, but finally concedes that as long as he goes with someone instead of making a possibly dangerous trek alone, she can't stop him. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that he'll end up with Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte), the alcoholic, out-of-shape man who used to provide spiteful companionship in Bill's European travels.

The thing is, neither Bill nor Stephen know what they're getting into -- despite the fact that people actually train for the 2,200 mile trek, the two decide to just go for it, and consequently hit multiple obstacles along the way. Most of the obstacles are very comedic -- run-ins with bears, meeting other hikers along the trail who try the men's nerves, etc. -- but these strung-together stints feel almost like an eclectic compilation of comic strips, disjointed and contrived (even based on a true story, it feels contrived) and cutting straight to the punchline in every scenario.

Despite this, there are some pretty solid scenes peppered throughout the second half of the film. Through a combination of their natural surroundings knocking them off their squabbling pedestals and of the trail teaching them a lesson about mortality, the two old friends learn a lot about themselves. And with two middle-aged characters, it certainly prompts the audience to look back on life with a fresh perspective. Could that perspective be a little bit more concrete, rather than assumed? The amount of times that our protagonists' struggles are internalized without any tangible, onscreen process gives us a resounding "yes". But you will still be able to pick up on the effect that the journey has on these two old friends.

The film boasts a lot of big names in its cast, with a fairly strong performance from Nolte and a stiff performance from Redford. Other supporting performances, such as the one by Thompson, and even brief roles by Nick Offerman, Mary Steenburgen, and Kristen Schaal, add life to the journey. Overall, it's a decent adaptation, though nowhere near perfect... now playing at the Midtown Cinema!