In the wake of “Wild,” in which Reese Witherspoon’s version of Cheryl Strayed hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and reckoned with her demons, we now have “Mild,” better known as “A Walk in the Woods.” It stars Robert Redford and Nick Nolte as, respectively, travel writer Bill Bryson and his buddy, fictionalized by Bryson as “Stephen Katz,” having a go at the Appalachian Trail for a little light banter and a casual insight or two regarding life’s highways.
The project grew out of Bryson’s 1998 book. Early on, Redford hoped to convince Paul Newman to co-star, as a sort of ambling swan song for Butch and Sundance. That didn’t work out, but Nolte’s sweaty, grunting, growling depiction of a veteran libertine, lawbreaker and substance abuser is the best thing in a pretty routine picture.
It has been directed with a surfeit of jumpy, fractured reaction shots by Ken Kwapis (“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”), and the technique does little for either the comic or dramatic rhythms. Leaving his wife (Emma Thompson, barely on screen for 10 minutes) and his cushy semi-retired New Hampshire life behind for a planned five months and 2,118 miles of hiking, Bryson brings his old Iowa pal along for company. Katz, on the run from the law, is not in shape. He is a blowhard and an easily winded windbag, whereas the Bryson according to Redford is a stoic, charismatic chick magnet.
The stripped-down script focuses on a few key encounters. Kristen Schaal chatters away as a judge-y fellow hiker they meet and then ditch, Mary Steenburgen offers up sexually meaningful glances as a motel and restaurant manager, Nick Offerman pops in as the REI employee who sells Bryson his stuff.