"A Walk in the Woods" has its share of amusing moments, and it is always a pleasure to watch Robert Redford and Nick Nolte, not to mention Emma Thompson and Mary Steenburgen. Nevertheless, stunning scenery and okay dialogue can only get you so far. Our senior citizens, Bill Bryson (Robert Redford) and Stephen Katz (Nick Nolte of "48 Hrs"), set out to hike the Appalachian Trail, and there are some good moments among the routine ones. The encounter with the bears is the high point of their shenanigans. The bears raid their camping area, and our heroes stand up in their little tents and shout back at them to run them. At one point, Nolte romances a two-ton Tessie in a Laundromat when they take time out to sleep in separate motel rooms. The woman asks Stephen to help her remove her panties from the washing machine and one thing leads to another, and he finds himself pursued by her jealous husband. Emma Thompson plays Redford's wife. She is a retired nurse that he met during his residence in England. She is flatly against the hike and insists that he take somebody with him. She loads him down with articles about the perils of hiking, the diseases that can be contracted by woodland creatures, and the possibility of foul play, but Redford perseveres and his old friend, who owes him $600, asks to come along. Mind you, our duo crap out and never finish the hike. I cannot imagine what Redford, who co-produced, and Nolte, who co-starred, saw in the Rick Kerb & Bill Holderman screenplay. The running joke is Stephen keeps prodding Bryson about the book that he is going to write, and Bryson tells him that he has no plans to pen their journey. "A Walk in the Woods" concludes with Bryson sitting down at his laptop to start the book. If you object to profanity and questionable subject matter, "A Walk in the Woods" might not be your choice of entertainment. Altogether, this Ken Kwapis movie qualifies as a potboiler. At one point during their rugged hike, our heroes lose their footing and tumble down the side of a trail—not very far but far enough that they cannot climb back up for lack of anything to grab a hold of—and they find themselves on a high point over looking a river gurgling below them. I thought about a better Robert Redford movie movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." Oh, well, they cannot all be memorable. The film boasts great cinematography, a sturdy cast, and solid production values, but the material is strictly lightweight.
Review of A Walk in the Woods
