Review of A Walk in the Woods (2015) by Tim Y — 05 Sep 2015

I wanted more from this movie, since I've read the book and love that. Nolte is the perfect Katz, just the way I envision Katz to be from the book. My problem is that Redford doesn't do Bryson justice.

To begin with, Bryson was in his late 30s, (I think) when he and Katz walked the AT. But in the movie he is portrayed as an old retired person looking for one last gasp of air, with no intention of writing a book about walking the AT.

Well, in real life, Bryson's every purpose in walking the AT was to write a book, and the fact he was portrayed as some over the hill elderly person bouncing off of 70 instead of his real age at that time of half that takes it from me.

While I believe Nolte is Katz, I don't have such belief in Redford's portrayal of Bryson. Nolte deserves an award for his performance. Redford, not so much. Add all this up and I found the movie slow moving and not ever taking off.

There just seems so much more they could do, although I acknowledge it may not be so easy making a movie about two people walking down a really, really long hiking trail. They left so much out from the book that would have really added to it.