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Bacon plays Walter, a child molester who is in parole after recently getting of jail. Walter is a loner, and is given a work placement in a lumber factory and resettled in an apartment which strangely overlooks a children's park. He spends his time keeping a low profile, attending weekly psychiatric visits, and trying to quell his demons by writing down his thoughts. , He gets a job in a sawmill working for Bob (David Alan Grier), who knows about his past but gives him the job as a favor to Walter's father. There he meets Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon's wife), a tough woman coworker who takes interest in Walter. Only his brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt) will pay him occasional, cautious, visits. Meanwhile, as he looks out of his window upon the school, he notices another man hanging about on a daily basis. Nicknaming him the Candyman, due to the fact that he is clearly trying to lure kids with the offer of sweets, Walter worries that he himself will be suspected of a new crime. Mos Def plays Sgt. Lucas, the cop assigned to visit Walter every couple of days to check on him.
This may seem similar to Mystic River, where Bacon played an adult victim of child abuse, and now he plays a role on the other side. The film's key scene is a well-played between Bacon and a little girl he meets in the park, and we watch mesmerized as he fights his inner demons and is tempted back to his old ways.
The movie is uncomfortable to watch, but the dialogue is so smartly written and the actor's expressions are so compelling that it's not to be missed.
He gets a job in a sawmill working for Bob (David Alan Grier), who knows about his past but gives him the job as a favor to Walter's father. There he meets Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon's wife), a tough woman coworker who takes interest in Walter. Only his brother-in-law (Benjamin Bratt) will pay him occasional, cautious, visits. Meanwhile, as he looks out of his window upon the school, he notices another man hanging about on a daily basis. Nicknaming him the Candyman, due to the fact that he is clearly trying to lure kids with the offer of sweets, Walter worries that he himself will be suspected of a new crime. Mos Def plays Sgt. Lucas, the cop assigned to visit Walter every couple of days to check on him.
This may seem similar to Mystic River, where Bacon played an adult victim of child abuse, and now he plays a role on the other side. The film's key scene is a well-played between Bacon and a little girl he meets in the park, and we watch mesmerized as he fights his inner demons and is tempted back to his old ways.
The movie is uncomfortable to watch, but the dialogue is so smartly written and the actor's expressions are so compelling that it's not to be missed.
