In theaters

THE WOODSMAN, directed by Nicole Kassell, written by Kassell, Steven Fechter, 87 minutes, rated R.

Nicole Kassell’s “The Woodsman” stars Kevin Bacon as Walter, a convicted pedophile recently released from a 12-year stint in prison who is trying to rebuild his life in spite of the temptations threatening to derail it.

Good luck to Walter.

As directed by Kassell from a script she and Steven Fechter based on his play, “The Woodsman” is dicey, tense moviemaking that rides an uncomfortable edge throughout.

It features a performance by Bacon that was among last year’s bravest and most overlooked. He’s excellent here, all caged, inward turmoil framed by a face wiped clean of expression. Only his eyes reveal the truth of how he feels – frightened, troubled, wary.

Set in a blue-collar section of Philadelphia, the film opens with Walter leaving prison under the supervised parole of Sgt. Lucas (Mos Def), finding work at a lumberyard thanks to family connections, and then securing an apartment across the street from a grade school.

Allegedly, this was the only apartment complex in the city that would take a sex offender’s money, but really, it’s just a plot contrivance, allowing us to watch Walter struggle with himself as he watches young girls playing just out of reach below him.

Three additional characters enter the mix -Walter’s brother-in-law Carlos (Benjamin Bratt), who is the only family member not to shun him; Walter’s co-worker Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick, Bacon’s real-life wife), with whom he has a telling affair; and the homosexual pedophile, Candy (Kevin Rice), who is paying too much attention to the boys in the playground beneath Walter’s living room window.

Throughout, too many contrivances bump against story, sending it askew, but still it comes recommended, particularly because of Bacon, who is superb here, taking a major career risk to examine the sort of character few actors have the guts to play or, for that matter, few people want to face.

This is an uneasy, sometimes difficult film to watch – rare at the movies these days – and not all will welcome it for good reasons. But as a study in pedophilia, which is especially timely given the claims against the Catholic Church and now with the Michael Jackson trial, there is plenty to be said for the conversation it ignites.

Kassell doesn’t make Walter sympathetic and she doesn’t demonize him. Instead, she observes him, focusing on his compulsions and treating his pedophilia as a disease. This will be a sticking point for some, particularly given the crimes involved, but it nevertheless proves the right choice for the movie. It allows it nuances, layers and complications it otherwise would have lacked had Kassell gone for straight apologia or outright attack.

Grade: B+

On video and DVD

LADDER 49, directed by Jay Russell, written by Lewis Colick, 120 minutes, PG-13.

The drama “Ladder 49” is about firefighters, and while it’s not set in New York City and never mentions the terrorist attacks that took place there, it’s impossible to view it without recalling those events.

The film’s opening shot, after all, is of a towering building whose top explodes in billowing clouds of fire and smoke. Inside are firefighters trying to free trapped civilians – and eventually themselves – when the building starts to collapse.

If that smells like opportunism to you, here’s the thing. In spite of the fact that a great deal of the film’s power is drawn from our collective memories of 9-11, there are other elements at work here that make “Ladder 49” a reasonably good, if predictable, meat-and-potatoes tearjerker.

As directed by Jay Russell from a script by Lewis Colick, the film is set in Baltimore, which is portrayed here as a close-knit community of working-class men and women who love each other almost as much as they love their pubs. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Jack Morrison, the young firefighter whose life is viewed in flashback as he lies trapped and wounded in the aforementioned building.

While a team of firefighters works to save him, the film flips back and forth through Jack’s life in an effort to give us an intimate portrait of the man. Along the way, we meet Jack as a rookie firefighter, a proud husband to Linda (Jacinda Barrett), a father of two children and a friend to many.

Tension comes in two forms: the pressure of day-to-day life as a firefighter and how difficult it is for Jack to sustain his increasingly shaky marriage to Linda when he decides to assume more risks at the job.

Though Russell has stripped his movie of subtlety and a wealth of other movies (“The Towering Inferno,” “Top Gun,” “Backdraft,” others) have trained us to expect what’s to come, “Ladder 49” nevertheless manages to be consistently watchable.

Its strength is in its brisk, credible action and its appealing cast – particularly Phoenix and Barrett, who get the best out of each other onscreen, and John Travolta in the stock role of the concerned fire chief, Capt. Mike Kennedy. All get the job done in a movie that respects the job and the men it depicts.

Grade: B

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.

com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Alien vs. Predator – B

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy – B+

The Bourne Supremacy – B

Catwoman – B-

Cellular – B+

Collateral – B+

Dawn of the Dead – A-

De-Lovely – B

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – B

Elf – B+

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-

Exorcist: The Beginning – F

Fahrenheit 9/11 – A-

Flight of the Phoenix – C-

The Forgotten – D

Friday Night Lights – B+

Hero – B+

I Heart Huckabees – C-

I, Robot – B+

Kill Bill Vol. 2 – B

King Arthur – B

The Manchurian Candidate – B+

Man on Fire – B

Maria Full Of Grace – A

Mean Girls – B+

The Motorcycle Diaries – A-

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

The Notebook – B+

Open Water – A-

Paparazzi – D-

Ray – A

Saw – D

Shall We Dance? – B

Shark Tale – B-

Shaun Of The Dead – B+

Shrek 2 – B

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow – A-

Spider-Man 2-A

The Spongebob Squarepants Movie – C