Review: A Walk in the Woods

Travel writer Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) isn’t handling retirement terribly well. Looking for something challenging, he decides upon hiking the Appalachian Trail, though his loving wife (Emma Thompson) is rather fearful that it might be too much for him and gently tries to dissuade him. He’s adamant, though, and eventually finds a hiking companion to help better sell the idea to his wife. This companion would be completely out-of-shape old friend Katz (Nick Nolte), who he hasn’t seen or heard from in years, and who may be kind of an alcoholic. Needless to say, Bryson’s wife’s fears aren’t entirely assuaged. A perfectly cast Nick Offerman plays a hiking goods store employee, Kristen Schaal plays a friendly but irritating hiker, and Mary Steenburgen plays a sweet innkeeper who takes to Redford, a character that just doesn’t seem necessary here.

Initially promising and surprisingly amusing, but ultimately extremely minor 2015 film from director Ken Kwapis (That cinematic masterpiece adaptation of the critically acclaimed literary classic “He’s Just Not That Into You”). Based on the book by the real-life Bill Bryson (who was decidedly decades younger than Robert Redford here) and scripted by Rick Kerb (AKA Michael Arndt, co-writer of “Oblivion”, “Toy Story 3”, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) and Bill Holderman (who produced the film, along with a few other Robert Redford projects) this is less “Wild” and more “Grumpy Old Men” without Burgess Meredith. It’s amusing at first, and Emma Thompson makes a helluva lot out of a helluva tiny role (great bit where she sends Redford a bunch of articles on wilderness mishaps), but it sort of stops dead right at the point where it’s really just beginning. Nothing that happens on the trek is surprising, terribly interesting, and hell even the laughs stop pretty much.

The cast is really nice (and kudos to Redford and Nolte for not aging terribly gracefully and letting us witness it), but we don’t even get all that much of a look at the scenery, for crying out loud. When it does let us, the scenery is indeed gorgeous, but I was surprised at how quickly the film cuts away from it throughout. This is the one film where you really do want to take in the scenery. We do get a great family feud scene between Nick Nolte and one of his grizzly relatives, though. No, I will never tire of ‘Nick Nolte has morphed into a grizzly bear’ jokes. They’re hilarious. Always. Speaking of hilarious, Kristen Schaal plays a woman who is hiking on her own, presumably because she’s so damn annoying people would rather slit their wrists than hike with her. Perfect casting and almost the only source of humour for me once the trek begins.

I think the scenery and the likeable cast and characters deserved a lot better than what Kwapis and his screenwriters give us. I have little doubt that the book would be vastly superior. After a fun start this goes not very far for far too long. Really disappointing, through no fault of the cast. There’s just not much of a story being told here, in fact I would prefer a different story to be told with these same actors and characters.

Rating: C