In the current climate, it's a brave actor who plays a paedophile and attempts to invest the role with some humanity. Kevin Bacon, long one of Hollywood's underappreciated talents, pulls it off magnificently in this sombre, disturbing tale of a convicted child molester trying to make a life for himself after parole. He plays Walter Rossworth, who finds himself living within sight of a primary school, being harassed by a local cop (rapper Mos Def) and falling in love with a co-worker (played by Bacon's wife Kyra Sedgwick) who's unaware of his past. It's never comfortable to watch - sequences in which Walter looks like he's about to commit further crimes are particularly harrowing. But it's also an intelligent, humane film (from first-time director Nicole Kassell) which is only let down by an ending that veers slightly towards dramatic convenience.

After twelve years in prison, Walter returns home. His family has abandoned him, save for his brother-in-law. Few know he's a sex offender and pedophile. Walter finds an apartment and is regularly visited by his parole officer. He gets a job at a lumber mill and starts seeing a coworker. Then his new world begins to unravel; as his past becomes known, he strikes up a high-risk friendship with a young girl and realizes that a man loitering near a schoolyard is a child molester prowling for his next victim.