A Walk in the Woods
Directed by: Ken Kwapis
Written by: Bill Holderman and Rick Kerb - Based on the book by Bill Bryson
Starring: Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson, Kristen Schaal, Nick Offerman, Mary Steenburgen
Adventure/Comedy/Drama - 104 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Sep 2015
Written by: Bill Holderman and Rick Kerb - Based on the book by Bill Bryson
Starring: Robert Redford, Nick Nolte, Emma Thompson, Kristen Schaal, Nick Offerman, Mary Steenburgen
Adventure/Comedy/Drama - 104 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Sep 2015
Bill Bryson’s 1998 nonfiction account of his attempt to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail is one of those books friends thrust upon you. Many of us may have heard the familiar appeal, “You have to read this book! It’s hysterical!” They are right; “A Walk in the Woods” is a brilliant piece of comedic travel writing. Unfortunately, this is a movie review and the screenplay adaptation does not even approach the original material. The view is spectacular and the chemistry between our two not so fleet of foot hikers is pleasant, but A Walk in the Woods feels empty, lagging, and perhaps 15 years too late.
After reading the book, Robert Redford (2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier) obtained the rights and put it on the back burner trying to find the right time and conditions to film it. Redford initially wanted Paul Newman, a sort of Bucket List for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Shoved back in the drawer after Newman’s death, Redford finally breathed life into the project once more after directing Nick Nolte in 2012’s The Company You Keep. He found his grizzled, overweight teammate to help him trip and stumble up and down the mountains.
After reading the book, Robert Redford (2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier) obtained the rights and put it on the back burner trying to find the right time and conditions to film it. Redford initially wanted Paul Newman, a sort of Bucket List for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Shoved back in the drawer after Newman’s death, Redford finally breathed life into the project once more after directing Nick Nolte in 2012’s The Company You Keep. He found his grizzled, overweight teammate to help him trip and stumble up and down the mountains.
A Walk in the Woods is a Redford passion project, but Nick Nolte (2015’s Run All Night) steals the show right out from under him. Recovering alcoholic and frequent drifter Steven Katz looks like Nolte’s infamous mug shot photo and his voice sounds like it is filtered through a carton of cigarettes and a gasmask. Just listening to him breath makes me think the coronary is around the next tree. Imagine the person most unlikely and most un-physically fit to hike a 2,000-mile trail and Nick Nolte is your man. Katz is the closest connection to last year’s hiking movie, Wild, where Reese Witherspoon played a hiker seeking solace from drug abuse and committing relentless adultery. Nothing in A Walk in the Woods approaches the suitcase of issues swirling around Wild’s protagonist.
Emma Thompson (2014’s Men, Women & Children) is the star of a strong supporting cast each with only bit parts. As Bill Bryson’s wife, she exclaims in her perfect British no nonsense tone, “Have you gone mad?” Screenwriters Bill Holderman and Rick Kerb advanced Bill Bryson’s and Steven Katz’s ages transforming them into septuagenarians. When your 70-year-old husband should be enjoying retirement with you and your kids and grandkids, the news he is abruptly going to take on a trail most folks younger than half his age cannot hike naturally calls for Thompson’s flabbergasted exclamations. Kristen Schaal (2012’s Sleepwalk with Me) pops up on the trail as the most annoying person in the world. You would not want to engage this woman in a conversation in the grocery store let alone occupy an endless trail with her. Schaal is perfect for the role because most of us believe this is how she must be in real life. Nick Offerman (2015’s Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) and Mary Steenburgen (2011’s The Help) also show up in brief parts but in non-impact, ‘just here to show some famous face’ roles.
Redford hired veteran director Ken Kwapis who has directed everything from a monkey in Dunston Checks In (1996) to a pack of adolescent girls in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005). Working alongside his go to cinematographer, John Bailey, these two have yet to discover a soaring vista shot they don’t like. Every time Bryson and Katz reach a plateau, a dam, or the apex of a hill, the camera goes airborne gliding up and around to show the audience that the Great Smoky Mountains and the Appalachian tree canopy are indeed sights to behold.
I cannot recommend A Walk in the Woods to anyone who has had the pleasure of already absorbing the source material. Those folks will just spend their time comparing and contrasting and forgetting they are here for the movie and not to join the endless chorus line brigade of chest puffers who snidely proclaim, “The book is always better than the movie.” Just because this is pretty much correct does not make it less annoying. The title set us up for the disappointment; this walk in the woods is merely two old men trying to prove the naysayers wrong by enduring a tough hike. They remain aloof from any real philosophy or truths about aging and keep it light. Some breezy, chuckling one-liners and frequently falling into the water does not make for a very intriguing film. But seriously, Nick Nolte is impressive.
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