MovieChat Forums > A Walk in the Woods (2015) Discussion > Late 20's. Saw it today with Dad. Lot of...

Late 20's. Saw it today with Dad. Lot of wasted potential (Spoilers)

posted 9 years ago by quball87
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm in my late 20's and went with my Dad to see this today. He thought the trailer was interesting and is a big Redford fan. I was willing to give it a shot as a buddy comedy with two older protagonists trying to do something great with what's left in their lives. I pictured it being a funny, uplifting story about not letting old age get you down, the importance of friendship, etc. And no…lot of wasted potential in this movie. For example:

1) When we meet Nick Nolte, he mentions he has to eat every hour or he has seizures. This never becomes an issue or problem in three months on the trail. I thought they could have shown Nick rushing to get food or suffering a seizure (not life threatening) and have Robert Redford help him in some way, in order to further cement their relationship for the audience.

2) Mary Steenburgen is totally wasted. She's in like two scenes. They imply romantic interest between her and Robert Redford. Redford is a good man who wouldn't cheat and loves his wife, but they could at least play that up. They could even have Steenburgen accompany them on part of the hike on a part she knows or have Redford stay the night or…something.

3) Redford gives a big speech about how he doesn't want to give up and then 15 minutes in the movie running time later, after they spend one night stuck on a ledge, Redford decides to give up. Okay….

4) There's only three interesting characters that they meet the entire time on the trail - that weird singing woman and those two fit guys. They could have come across more characters or people or…something.

5) It wasn't clear to me, the viewer, what the "lesson" was for Redford and Nolte. We don't see Redford invite Nolte to anything or make some big speech to his wife or do….anything. I suppose the change was that he started writing again after writing forewords for 4.5 years but that's it?

I didn't feel uplifted or particularly happy at the end of the movie. I was just like….oh. Okay…that's it?

Nolte had some great lines and laughs from the whole theater. I think all the script energy was used on writing Nolte's dialogue. Emma Thomspon was great too in her limited role.

[–] BigPudge7654 9 years ago

Your 1st point) i didnt even notice thw food thing didnt come back, but a scene of him having a seizure would have been melodramatic and completely out of place in this movie.

Your 2nd point) Sometimes actors take roles just to work with ppl... Steenburgen pry took the role to work with Nolte and Redford. Alsox playing yp a romance between tedford and her would have been way cliche and been just dumb

[–] BigPudge7654 9 years ago

Your 3rd point) Redford didnt want to give up, true, but it was more about him proving it to himself. When Nolte rented the car, he still hadnt proven to himself he could do it, perhaps it took that fall to the ledge to show him that he had nothing more to prove to himself.

Your 4th point) They met a few ppl, why waste the running time with them just meeting ppl, this movoe isnt about the people you meet, it was about these 2 and their journey.

Your 5th point) thanks for clarifying that you were the viewer in this scenario! But the lesson or moral was just aboit Redford lost the spark in his career and basically his own life, this journey reignited that spark and it took Nolte always saying that things would be good in his book and then sending the post cards. Also, who is to say what the next journey is, Nolte and Redford rekindled their lost friendship.

I am 30 years old, saw this this evening and loved it. I actually inderstand your points, just had different thoughts about them!

[–] scoulter2 9 years ago

So I saw this tonight. I think that they adapted it fairly well. The problems you have seem to be that the book isn't about a character arc. The reason Kats didn't have a seizure on the trail is because it didn't happen in real life. I know that movies use creative license all the time, but this book wasn't about much more than a physical journey that Bill and Kats took with humorous stuff happening along the way. In fact all of Bill's travel books are like that and it would be weird to add an emotional journey when none of his books had any such thing.

[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

i haven't seen the film yet, but as far as I can tell the problem is that they've tried to turn a straightforward travel book into some kind of drama. there isn't any story arc or lesson or anything in the book, it's just about two men walking the Aappalachian trail. and they weren't even that old, Bill Bryson and his friend were only in their 40s when they did the walk.

[–] dnaman16 9 years ago

OP I agree on all your points