On what grounds? That both leads are at least 30 years too old for their roles since Bryson and his estranged reprobate pal, Stephen Katz, are 44 in the book. The feminist in me initially planned to bash “A Walk in the Woods,“ directed in typical middle-of-the-road fashion by Ken Kwapis (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) with an unfortunate insistence on telegraphing almost every laugh. But the ever-volatile and gravel-voiced Nolte and the perennially cool and smooth-talking Redford manage just fine as a bracing pair of fellow travelers. A reunion with his sparring partner in “ Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “ The Sting,” halted by Newman’s death in 2008, would have been a must-see event. He is a popular author in Britain and his impeccably graceful and witty style deserves a large American audience as well.Redford, who is also a producer, initially planned on reteaming with buddy Paul Newman a decade or so ago when he began to piece together this project based on Bill Bryson’s humor-filled 1998 account of his misadventures while hiking the 2,180-mile Appalachian Trail. Bryson completes the trail as planned, and he records the misadventure with insight and elegance. Most amusing is his cranky, crude and inestimable companion, Katz, a reformed substance abuser who once had single-handedly ''become, in effect, Iowa's drug culture.'' The uneasy but always entertaining relationship between Bryson and Katz keeps their walk interesting, even during the flat stretches. He reviews the characters of the AT (as the trail is called), from a pack of incompetent Boy Scouts to a perpetually lost geezer named Chicken John. Bryson (The Lost Continent) carries himself in an irresistibly bewildered manner, accepting each new calamity with wonder and hilarity. Awed by merely the camping section of his local sporting goods store, he nevertheless plunges into the wilderness and emerges with a consistently comical account of a neophyte woodsman learning hard lessons about self-reliance.

after 20 years in England, Iowa native Bryson decided to reconnect with his mother country by hiking the length of the 2100-mile Appalachian Trail.

A walk in the woods book sparknotes