A SEXUAL PREDATOR AIMS FOR NORMALCY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

'THE WOODSMAN'' is interesting both for what it is and what it is not. The film dares to examine the human side of a pedophile yet stops somewhat short of giving the character full human dimension.

Everybody involved in the production probably thinks they've done something brave, and making the film is brave. But even this very independent movie (it flashes its gritty, low-budget, jump-cut virtues like a big red I), can't go the distance. The film strains for moral catharsis and loses some of its courage in the process.

What's there, though, is still strong. Within the film's limits, Kevin Bacon does a yeoman's job of bringing us into his character's constrained, paranoid and self-struggling world.

Bacon's Walter returns to his downscale Philadelphia neighborhood after a dozen years in prison. Apparently a highly skilled woodworker, he gets a job at a lumber yard where only the employer (David Alan Grier) knows his past. Understandably a keep-to-himself type, Walter nonetheless attracts the attention of office gal Mary-Kay (Eve), whom he blows off to his future peril, and forklift driver Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick), who seduces him without too much fuss.

It turns out that tough parolee Vickie was a molestation victim herself, and is willing to give Walter a pass when she learns about his past. Of course, no one else is. Even his brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), the only family member to welcome Walter back, is primed to turn on him if he exhibits the least bit of interest in little girls.

Which Walter can't help, but is sincerely trying to control. A crisis point is reached when he strikes up a friendship with a preteen in a park. The outcome of that is a powerfully played scene, but one that leaves some gaping ethical questions open while appearing to resolve the primary one.

Even more questionable is the parole board allowing Walter to rent an apartment that overlooks an elementary school. And it's more than a contrived convenience that he spots a pederast stalking the campus; it allows both Walter and viewers to displace their revulsion by giving them a one-dimensional monster to hate.

But wasn't the movie's point supposed to be that society's most despised sex offenders are human too? Strangely, but perhaps not, the most vividly complex character in the whole movie is Mos Def's Sgt. Lucas, a molester-hating cop whose hassling of Walter reveals a man trying to cope with his own thorniest issues.

Bacon goes the bottled-up route most of the time; it's not the most inventive approach to such a character, but it is a logical one, and he puts across Walter's hauntedness and determination to stand his own ground. Sedgwick, Bacon's wife, can't get too far beyond her working-class stereotype. The couple's frank love scenes do have a nice, natural intimacy and passion, though; so much for the theory that married actors can't be hot on screen.

The director is a feature first-timer, Nicole Kassell. It probably takes a bold novice to tackle subject matter this unappetizing (the film is based on a play by Kassell's co-screenwriter, Steven Fechter). More experience in life and art, however, are probably required to make a movie that lives up to the audacity of the concept.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

THE WOODSMAN - Two and one half stars

(R: sex, nudity, language, violence, children in jeopardy)

Starring: Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Mos Def, Benjamin Bratt, Eve, David Alan Grier.

Director: Nicole Kassell.

Running time: 1 hr. 27 min.

Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Criterion 6, Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Empathetic portrayal of a paroled pedophile takes numerous moral short cuts, but is probably as brave as such a thing can get.

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Photo:

Kevin Bacon, with Kyra Sedgwick, stars as a pedophile who wants to keep his demons at bay, in ``The Woodsman.''