Brief review: "The Backwoods"

Distributor: Lionsgate



The Backwoods is a tense thriller only undermined by pacing issues that threaten to bore the viewer before the thrilling material is apparent.

Gary Oldman stars as a businessman who takes his wife (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), coworker (Paddy Considine), and his wife (Virginie Ledoyen) on a hunting trip in the remote woods of Spain.

The group is enjoying a little R & R when the two men, while hunting, come across a young girl locked away in an abandoned house. Fearing for her safety, they decide to take her with them and try and get help. It isn't long before the locals find out she is gone and go looking for her, armed with guns and intent on locking her up again as their little secret.

Echoing the class clash of films such as "Deliverance," The Backwoods would have been more consistently effective had it gotten to the aforementioned conflict sooner. The film takes its time setting up the two couples as feuding and none too happily married. The problem is, that in the process, it presents the four of them as distinctly unlikeable so that by the time the girl is discovered, the viewer almost detests them.

Of course, their willingness to help the girl redeems them a little but still, once they are put in opposition to the locals, what is presented is a clash between two sets of disgusting human beings, one moreso than the other.

Luckily, the film gets good performances from the cast. Oldman is a consummate pro and it shows, even in a character with underdeveloped motivations. Considine benefits from being the only character who undergoes any real change, going from a city man afraid to fire a gun to a stiff, uncaring, desensitized killer as the film progresses. The two female characters aren't given as much to do, saddled in the generic roles of the constantly screaming, frightened woman seen disappointingly often in these films.

Are the good performances and the admittedly tense final moments enough to offset the slow start and unlikeable characters? It's a toss up. If you are craving a new take on an old premise and are willing to foregive its shortcomings, The Backwoods may be worth a look. Otherwise, you may be better off just watching "Deliverance" again.