After the Hunt

Words, words, words. Narratives in any medium cannot resonate without writing that captures some authentic aspect of humanity, no matter how ultimately cynical or outlandish. After the Hunt has a particularly fascinating relationship with language, as the central conflict revolves around one woman’s word against one man’s. The movie follows Alma (Julia Roberts), an adjunct professor who finds herself torn when her star pupil Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) accuses her best friend Hank (Andrew Garfield) of sexual assault. This premise would be downright unwatchable without a script that was either razor-sharp or heartfelt. Thankfully, Nora Garrett’s pen is excellent; though the screenplay was clearly written years ago, the way it takes apart the hypocrisy of so-called feminists, the homogeneity of academia, the willingness to believe victims when convenient, and the various pretenses our relationships are predicated on makes for genuinely compelling food for thought. It balances its sharp messaging with empathy for our protagonist: Alma is deeply flawed and downright detestable at points, but Garrett makes it clear that there is a wounded woman underneath it all attempting to make sense of her emotions.

But words are nothing without the proper execution. And unfortunately, a brilliant script like After the Hunt has been adapted into a lifeless, almost soapy drama by Luca Guadagnino, a phenomenal director who is a complete mismatch for this story. Though the writing is vigorous and quick-paced, Guadagnino’s signature tenderness morphs into a sluggishness that makes every scene a chore to get through. The film feels horribly inauthentic, as the action lines are practically visible in every scene. Adding to the stilted atmosphere is a rare miss from Trent Rezznor and Atticus Ross, whose score is intrusive yet derivative. Perhaps it was a creative decision to make the film feel so overtly scripted considering the ending, but it is one I highly disagree with considering the tightrope of a tone this story walks on. While distancing the audience from the story does not necessarily have to be a bad thing, in this case, it has the tragic effect of producing indifference. Despite Roberts’s best efforts, the moral conflict of Alma that grounds the entire story is demonstrated by many beats that feel like knockoff TÁR scenes. This is a very serious subject matter and a potentially powerful narrative, and it sadly does not get the weight it deserves due to how cheesy so much of it comes across. 

What is frustrating about After the Hunt is that it has so many fantastic elements. The aforementioned script is strong, as is the cast that brings these words to life. Roberts is excellent as Alma, conveying the contradiction of the character with precision. She commandeers the screen and ensures you stay engrossed with Alma, no matter your feelings about the character. Also good is Edebiri, whose anxious energy is refined to a T here. Her Maggie is so immediately easy to empathize with that it does hurt the story somewhat. When she is discussed by other characters, that person is a far cry from the woman we actually see on-screen. Of the cast, Michael Stuhlbarg bridges the gap between the screenplay and the direction the best, offering the film’s biggest laughs but also one of its most devastating scenes as Alma’s perceptive husband. Garfield is the clear weak link here, hamming up the role of a painfully believable man to the point where he becomes, in his own words, “a cliché of a cliché”. So much of the script’s potential nuance and edge gets lost because of how immediately black and white this scenario feels. But tragically, even the film’s best performances can feel stilted at times due to how artificial the entire movie comes across as.

After the Hunt should be a great film. On paper, it has many moments of brilliance that should have easily been capitalized on. Barring that, it should at least be a good film. After all, how could watching Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Michael Stuhlbarg bounce off of one another make for an uninteresting time? Alas, words can only do so much when the lens we view them through does not suit them whatsoever. To those who do not understand the importance of direction in film, I would highly recommend After the Hunt. To anyone else, I would highly recommend saving your time. It is not one of the worst movies I have seen this year, but watching a film with talent brimming both in front of and behind the screen makes the ultimate disappointment all the more excruciating. 

4.5/10