Metacritic reviews

A stunning, difficult film.

A stunningly crafted work from first-time feature director Nicole Kassell.

An engrossing study of a protagonist who variously inspires pity, clinical interest, fondness, and revulsion-sometimes all at once.

The film's core, anchored by a fine ensemble cast and a controlled, focused performance by Bacon, is completely solid.

It takes a confident actor to accept a role like this and to perform it to flawless perfection.

Bacon conveys the weight of his character's anguished struggles through his economy of movement, and the powerful, spare script is refreshingly devoid of cant.

Kassell's visual influences are evident -- she's clearly a fan of the down-and-dirty films of the '70s -- but the consistently fine performances smooth over the rough patches.

Worth seeing for Bacon's lived-in minimalist purgatory, but the movie soft-pedals the nature of the desires he's at war with: the fact that they will never go away.

While The Woodsman gets the psychological profile right, it fails to make Bacon a man.

Overblown melodrama, as muddle-headed as it is palpably sincere.