A WALK IN THE WOODS is a performance walk in the park for Robert Redford and Nick Nolte playing an outdoors odd couple who try to trek the great Appalachian Trail that stretches 2,000 miles across North America.

Based on Bill Bryson’s best seller of the same name, Redford plays Bryson, for whom retirement is anathema and whose days of adventuring are far from over. His wife, played by the stately Emma Thompson, is aghast at the idea and consents only if he is accompanied by another adult.

Enter Katz, played by Nolte, an old chum not seen in years, since he absconded with a loan and began a romance with booze.

Not the cosiest candidate for companion of this order, but he turns out the only contender, so Bryson and his wife concede and the adventure begins.

Arthritis, arrhythmia, and the alphabet of aging ailments make the walk more of an amble, a gamble rather than a gambol, but these two old codgers through mishap, mis-hip, misstep, and misery, discover that it is better to travel hopefully than arrive.

Along the trail they encounter a myriad of fellow trekkers and individuals who offer hospitality along the way, including a flirty cameo from the always luminous Mary Steenburgen.

There’s also a scary bear, inclement weather and a lethal rock ledge…

Robert Redford, ageing gracefully, gives a suitably deadpan performance and there’s still more than a semblance of the cinema superstar he was, and remains.

Nick Nolte, ageing disgracefully, nails the cantankerous Katz, and seems a no brainer in the casting.

Originally, this was to be another pairing of Redford and Paul Newman, but Newman died and the project lay dormant for a decade. Redford resurrected it and has delivered a charming Lazarus, with many surprising laugh out load bits.

A WALK IN THE WOODS may not be an Oscar contender – perhaps rather, a candidate for the lumbago Olympics – but its a sit down misere for a mirthful wiling away of a couple of hours, with a nod to the Road movies of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.