Let’s talk about the woman’s size for a moment. Yes, Katz, who meets said woman in a laundromat while wearing garbage bags and looking like the red-faced aftermath into which Nolte can easily transform. Umm … how about making a woman’s husband ragingly jealous of Katz?Īlso Read: Toronto Film Festival Adds Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Anna Kendrick, Johnny Depp Films You can hear the brainstorming: What can we have happen to them? Bears, for one. But “A Walk in the Woods” decides to go for - nay, strain for - antics. So where does director Ken Kwapis (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) and a trio of writers (one uncredited) take them from there? In last year’s Oscar-nominated “Wild,” flashbacks were effectively used to break up the protagonist’s hike on the Pacific Crest Trail.

Credit: Frank Masi / Broad Green Pictures The beginning of their trip is a joke (but not the kind of joke this movie needs), with Katz huffing and puffing, barely able to walk, and needing to rest after a quarter-mile.Įmma Thompson as Cynthia Bryson. Stephen is a cartoon: he talks as if his mouth were full of cotton he limps off the plane and then tells Bill he needs to eat every hour or else he’ll get seizures. Once Nick Nolte, as Bill’s college friend Stephen, shows up to join him on the hike, expectations plummet. He soon goes head-to-head with Nick Offerman‘s hiking gear salesman another joke lands. Both at the funeral and in the opening scene - Bill’s trying to survive a torturous television interview - Redford’s facial expressions and quips convey genuine wit and humor. After attending a funeral, Bill goes for a walk and is inspired to hike the Appalachian Trail, a trip on which concerned wife ( Emma Thompson) insists that he take a friend. While you’re viewing the film - and guessing at the next moment of hijinks - you imagine the studio had a lot of notes.Īlso Read: Broad Green Pictures Unveils Inaugural Slate, Release Dates for Andrew Garfield, Robert Redford MoviesĮither that, or the real Bryson has lived a sitcom life. Even more of a surprise is learning that this film is based on a memoir. So it’s surprising when the opening minutes show promise, thanks to an incredibly preserved Robert Redford, who plays accomplished travel writer Bill Bryson. It’s all right there in the trailers: slapstick, womp-womp one-liners, the premise of old buddies going on an adventure. If you think man-crack is the apex of hilarity, “A Walk in the Woods” just might be the movie for you.

A walk in the woods redford