FILM REVIEW: After The Hunt, Starring Julia Roberts

Mind Games

I sometimes sit down to start writing, and walls begin to feel like they are closing in. So many streams of thoughts ringing in my head that finding a starting spot seems insurmountable. Some would say that backing yourself into a corner is the best way to write, as it forces your hand at a solution. What happens when a writer thinks they are backing the story into a corner, only to find the story falling off a small cliff with minimal impact? This is where After the Hunt, a new film by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Queer, Challengers), falls. The film sets in motion with questions that are engaging enough, but then treads into the mud with “answers” that take themselves way too seriously. It loosens the depth created by some wonderful production value.

Led by Julia Roberts in one of her best performances as of late, this film falls under the pressure of its own journey to discover its own moral “clarity”. Yes, we are supposed to have some questions when the credits roll. Unfortunately, those questions never broach further than “what just happened”. Then when you think about it further, it becomes more frustrating while thinking about the movie that could have been if the writing was not overcooked.

Alma Imhoff (Roberts) is an esteemed professor at Yale University. She, along with her colleague Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield), are trying to obtain tenure within their Philosophy department. During a party at Imhoff’s (incredible) apartment, Gibson and student Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri) leave together and seem to go back to Gibson’s apartment. Resnick later confides in Imhoff that Gibson crossed a huge line in their hangout together. This places Imhoff, very clearly a “progressive” white feminist, squarely in between Resnick and Gibson (who she clearly has a history with). Moral questions arise and the film attempts to explore the Truth and wondering whether the Truth even matters at all.

Curious where you have heard a story like this recently? Tár ventured into these waters (with better results). Where that film allowed some breath of fresh air in absurdity, After The Hunt plays its cards very seriously. It repeatedly reminds us that this is a Philosophy Department so of course there will be questions. Even when the film seems to be ending, nope! There’s more! Luckily the story is told through some great production value. Multiple-time Beyoncé collaborator Malik Hassan Sayeed photographs a gorgeous Yale campus. The Imhoff apartment alone is so delicious to look at and adds nice ambiance to the complexity of the situations at hand. Composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network, Challengers) also add some needed depth to the themes at hand. Dissonant chords play throughout, giving a nice heightening to the picture without going overboard.

Speaking of dissonance, I wish Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri added more of it throughout. They both seem misguided with their character choices. I was waiting for Edebiri’s character to pack a bit more punch, considering the nepotism behind Resnick. And with Garfield, the character did not change much throughout besides getting angry in one scene. Both characters are competently acted, just in a misguided direction. Michael Stuhlbarg also plays an odd character in Imhoff’s husband Frederik. There is a scene in which he continues to walk in and out of the kitchen while Resnick and Imhoff have a conversation. I just truly did not understand it. Maybe it was playing above my head and I could not even access it. That is fine, just do not be surprised when others do not get it, either.

All of these critiques end up deflating the story just enough that by the end, you are left wondering why we even care in the first place. A great question, indeed.