“Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield are great in this otherwise shallow ‘Tár’ wannabe”.

0 1 5 minutes read

“Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield are great in this otherwise shallow ‘Tár’ wannabe”.

Almost immediately in After the huntyou can tell this director Luca Guadagnino was inspired by Woody Alleneven in the fonts used in the title cards. This is obviously a deliberate choice by Guadagnino, playing into the many accusations that have been made against Allen, but it also lets the audience know that he is not presenting his subject as a simple black and white issue. In the same way as Todd FieldIt is Storage dissected the downfall of his esteemed and established title character, After the hunt doesn’t want the audience to speak out for or against its struggling central character; he wants you to be just a fly on the wall.

Guadagnino may have become a more mainstream filmmaker, especially after the release of Challengers last year, but it’s important to remember that he’s always been one to play with moral lines. Call me by your name focused on a steamy romance between a 17 year old and a 24 year old, while Bones and all had its two attractive stars as cannibals stalked by a predatory older man. Yes, After the hunt can play your mother’s favorite movie star, Julia Robertsin one of her juiciest roles in a decade, but her character, Alma Olsson, is far from Erin Brockovitchor really any role she’s played before. Like its characters, After the hunt is a messy film, perhaps even intentionally so, and as flawed as the film is, it is memorable.

What is “After the Hunt” about?

Alma Imhoff is a well-respected philosophy professor at Yale University who puts her career above everything else. She is also a very emotionally closed person, with lots of buried secrets, which is very ironic since she is married to a psychiatrist (Michael Stuhlbarg). Alma is now in the running to become a full professor, her only competition being her close friend, Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield). Throughout the film, we learn that Alma is the type of teacher who plays favorites with his students. She thrives on having a student want to be her. This feeds his ego and further hides his insecurities. At this point, his protégé is Maggie Resnick (Available Ayo), the extremely liberal and socially conscious daughter of a billionaire couple who donated a lot of money to the university.

After attending a party at Alma’s glamorous apartment, a very drunk Hank offers to walk Maggie back to her apartment, where we learn that her trans romantic partner, Alex (Lio Mehiel), is absent. The next day, Alma becomes worried when Maggie doesn’t show up for class and, upon returning home, finds her waiting outside. Maggie confides in Alma that Hank “crossed a line” and sexually assaulted her, and seeks a lawyer. Alma questions Maggie, not really knowing how to feel, causing the young woman to storm off. Alma meets with Hank the next day to confront him about the encounter, but he tells her that he confronted her after learning that she had plagiarized her thesis and made up the story to get out of trouble.

As a result of all this, Hank is fired from his job, which throws Alma into the middle of a moral crisis. Not only does she not know which version of the story to believe, but her own dark secrets from her past begin to resurface, further complicating matters.

“After the Hunt” is too determined to be morally gray

First time screenwriter Nora Garrett intends to ensure that the audience understands the metaphors contained After the huntwhich ultimately makes the film less credible as a whole. The film constantly touches on themes of position of power and generational differences, but it never fully delves into them, with extremely pointed dialogue. The metaphors are basic and confusing, simply presenting certain ideas before moving on without a second thought. The movie tries to be real, from Alma constantly cheating on Maggie’s partner to Hank initially acting like the accusations aren’t serious, but the characters speak with way too many metaphors, even though they’re experts in philosophy. It’s like he’s trying desperately to be the Storage from academiabut he forgets what made this film work so well.

Almost all the characters in After the hunt is designed to get under the skin of the audiencefor which the film proves effective. Trent Reznor And Atticus RossThe score does more to put the audience on alert than Guadagnino’s direction or Garrett’s writing. Edebiri’s Maggie is not portrayed as someone without flaws. In fact, she’s almost as unlikeable as Garfield’s Hank. We see her steal from Alma and hear her lie numerous times, which helps create an even more uncomfortable atmosphere. Every character exists in gray, and while it’s an admirable effort, it culminates in an ending that leaves you unsatisfied.

That’s not it After the hunt is not remarkable; it keeps your attention long after the credits roll, but the questions it raises are not only about what really happened, but also about the many plot holes scattered throughout the film. Eventually, After the hunt it’s like a collection of ideas and thoughts which Guadagnino and Garrett presented not for discussion in the film, but simply to poke and prod at you, much like what the characters do to each other in the film.

Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield are the reasons to see ‘After the Hunt’

Image via Amazon MGM Studios

It’s not controversial to say that Roberts hasn’t made the greatest series of films in the last two decades. She’s always been a terrific actress, but the roles she chose, with a few exceptions, never seemed challenging or that compelling, at least on the big screen. When you first hear that Roberts is starring in a film that is clearly inspired by Storageyou might expect a more showy and abrasive performance from him. Instead, Roberts is surprisingly restrained, which makes her character more raw, despite a clunky storyline. It’s Garfield who gets the strongest performance, despite having much less screen time. Whether it’s shouting in the hallways or simply meeting Roberts at the bar, Garfield makes Hank unstable. Both Roberts and Garfield take what audiences typically expect from them and use it to their advantage, making their characters all the more compelling.

Stuhlbarg is amusing as Alma’s husband and helps deliver some of the film’s few humorous moments, including a moment where he wanders in and out of the kitchen repeatedly while Alma and Maggie are having an important conversation. He is also one of the few characters who has a little more moral sense than everyone else. Sure, he can seem a bit of an idiot sometimes, but he has charm. Edebiri isn’t as effective as his co-stars, but that’s not entirely his fault. Her character is meant to be prickly and edgy, but she never seems human. While Roberts and Garfield are given multi-layered characters, Subject Maggie is One-Notete. The film attempts to explore her connection to Roberts, including speculating whether or not she is sexually attracted to Alma, but it never fully engages.

After the hunt has a rich premise that could have led to a film that thrives on moral complexities and conversations, and while the film gives us a lot to digest, it also fails to fully commit to the kind of story it wants to be. It presents you with themes using fancy big words, only to move on a few minutes later. It features terrific performances from Roberts and Garfield, but even they aren’t enough to keep the film from being too confusing and morally ambiguous for its own good.

After the hunt opens in select theaters on October 10, before expanding to theaters worldwide on October 17.