The Walker

Washington DC: Carter Page III (Woody Harrelson) is a “walker”, that is a gay gentleman who accompanies high-class ladies to cultural events their husbands can’t be bothered attending.

He is particularly fond of Lynn (Kristin Scott-Thomas), whose husband is a Liberal senator.
One day Lynn finds her lover murdered and in order to protect her, Carter agrees to tell the police that he found the body.
This choice starts a chain reaction, at the end of which Lynn and her Walker are charged with the murder, and Carter’s friends suddenly turn their backs on him.

Even Emek (Moritz Bleibtreu), Carter’s boyfriend, gets involved in what appears to be a conspiracy with many sides; and Carter has to choose which side to take.  

After a string of unsuccessful films, the latest being Auto Focus (2002) and Dominion: Prequel To The Exorcist (2005, not to be confused with Renny Harlin’s homonymous prequel), Schrader comes back with a gripping thriller imbued with a sharp social  critique.

The community of rich ladies Carter has to escort (and of their apparently harmless husbands) is in reality a vipers’ nest whose survival instinct protects itself even against the truth.

Served by a perfect cast, the film is nevertheless all on Woody Harrelson’s shoulders: he proves to be very believable in a gay role and easily wears the well-tailored suits of an “arbiter elegantiarum” entangled in a game that is bigger than him.

All that being said, unfortunately Schrader is better at directing the story than at writing it: his screenplay is frayed and not always clear, whereas the technical side and the character development are mastered with elegance.
Still, The Walker is well worth a visit.   

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