The Woodsman

Released after twelve years in prison, a man returns to his home town and takes a job at a lumber yard. His offence was the sexual abuse of children, and the flat he rents faces a school. The film neither forgives him nor makes him a monster; the narrative gives its weight to his facing his own impulse again each day, and holds the viewer uncomfortably inside his point of view. A long scene in a park carries all the film's moral weight. It is Nicole Kassell's first film, adapted from a play. Kevin Bacon leads and produced. A real warning: the subject is child sexual abuse and the film addresses it directly. Nothing is staged for spectacle and it is still extremely hard to watch. Do not come to it unprepared.