A Walk In The Woods

[ejwrank]

I think Redford produced the film but it was directed by Ken Kwapis.

We saw this at Hackney Picturehouse and when the adverts/trailers started the picture failed and there was just sound. Didn't mind that during the adverts but knew that the film would begin in the same way so sent son David out to tell the staff who, of course, had no idea. It was fixed before the film started at least. Why do cinemas seem incapable of starting a film with sound AND picture!!!

This was slow but I found it amusing and gentle and not a bad way to spend my Sunday morning. We know the Appalachian Trail as lived not too far away and my brothers hiked sections with the Scouts when they were young. These motels, camping areas/bunkhouses do exist and many people hike the trail in sections over a long time -- it is an enormous undertaking. I believe that Bryson went back and did more bits of the walk at various times and ended up doing about half the walk -- which was still 800+ miles-- but he never completed it -- too busy writing the book about it perhaps? Personally I find Bryson's books very entertaining and they could have improved the script enormously had they quoted him a bit more.

[Beate]

It is well known that Robert Redford in films surrounds himself with actresses who are at least 20 years younger than him. Emma Thompson is 23 years younger so not all that astounding, also seeing that he is playing someone younger. There is a bigger age gap between OH and me.

[kevinknapman]

I thought this was an amiable enough film that, for the most part, passed the time pleasantly enough.
I agree that Redford seemed to be phoning it in. Which seems odd, considering that this has been a passion project for Redford for many years now (hence the age difference between him and Bryson). Perhaps his heart went out of it when Paul Newman died (his original choice for Katz).
Luckily Nick Nolte's character was interesting enough to make up for that. The only downside to the Katz character was a slightly unnecessary strain of misogyny. Reaching its lowest point when talking about the overweight woman he wanted to sleep with and remarking that it was typical that the only two men who would actually want to sleep with her in the world happen to be in the same town. Which was rather unpleasant and mean. If the Redford/Bryson character had spoken out against that viewpoint it would have been fine but he just agreed with him most of the time.
On the plus side there were welcome, if short, cameos from Nick Offerman and Kristen Schaal and five excellent Lord Huron songs which piqued my interest whenever they appeared (generally to soundtrack beautifully shot landscapes).
Like Wild and The Way before it, it also makes me want to try and tackle a lengthy hiking trail myself at some point.

[missgotty]

I found this to be very slow with not much happening and not that funny.

3/10