After the Hunt: An All-Star Disappointment

On paper, After the Hunt certainly had everything going for it, from Academy Award nominated director Luca Guadagnino, to its all-star cast, featuring the likes of Julia Roberts, Ayo Edibiri, and Andrew Garfield. In addition to that, its premise, though perhaps a bit dated, is still relevant today. In short, all the pieces were there but for whatever reason, the film fumbles things big time. Set in the post-#MeToo and cancel culture eras, some may take those pieces and dismiss the film as mere Oscar bait. In the end, though the film may not quite shake that characterization, it is simply a missed opportunity, especially seeing that the path was there. Trying to make point while having nothing to say, the result is a frustrating exercise that is made even worse by its overlong runtime, nearing 2.5 hours. Seemingly doubling down on its failure of making a point, it instead plays up the melodrama, evolving into a a dull thriller that only skirts the real issues. It may look and sound fine, but no amount of string plucking or piano key playing can distract from that fact. That being said, Roberts, Edibiri, and Garfield, as well as Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny, do their best with what they are given. The problem with that is that they are wasted in a pretentious mess that is nowhere near as resonant as it thinks it is.

After the Hunt is centered around Alma Imhoff (Roberts), a Yale philosophy professor, on the verge of receiving tenure, who found herself at a personal and professional impasse when Maggie Price (Edebiri), one of her star students, makes an accusation of sexual assault against Hank Gibson (Garfield), one of her friends and work colleagues. Putting her in a tough position, Alma needed to reconcile her relationship with Maggie and Hank in the midst of Hank’s alleged actions, whether they are true or not or whether she believed Maggie or not. Unfortunately for her, figuring a way through would not be so simple. Playing off their complicated dynamic off as a thriller, for Alma, it proved to be much more than doing right for Maggie and Hank, while still having her prospective tenure to worry about. Giving audiences plenty to unpack also providing little in the way of substance, the film drags its feet as it leans heavily on melodrama to get by, focusing on the wrong character. Coming from a different generation, having worked for everything she earned, Alma rose up the professional ranks of a patriarchal system designed to be more difficult for women to succeed. To her, that’s just the way it was and she came to terms with it all. Now faced with many of the same hurdles, times have clearly changed, as the contrast between she and Alma made for an interesting dynamic, though one that is not explored nearly enough. Being a woman, Gay, Black, and from an affluent family, Maggie’s perspective as the alleged victim would be more fruitful.

Meanwhile, essentially left on an island, Maggie found herself in the middle of a he-said-she-said situation against Hank. As these situations often go, people take sides but in the age of optics over truth, even the appearance of impropriety can lead to swift action from those in power, without due process, as a response. However, a cloud continued to float above Maggie following Hank’s unceremonious dismissal. Living with the added pressure of the growing suspicions of others, life grew tougher for Maggie with each passing day. Believing Alma to be an ally, she was hesitant of fully committing to Maggie’s cause, conflicted about her feelings for Hank, Maggie, and what their drama meant for her and her future. Watching Maggie start to unravel under the weight of that pressure, she experienced much of the same as Hank’s firing left her rattled and wrestling with her conscience. As more truths came to the surface, Maggie wasn’t quite the star student she appeared to be, and Alma’s substance abuse issues revealed themselves. Ultimately, Alma couldn’t hide from her past forever and in order to move forward, she needed to face the truth. Instead of merely demonizing Hank and making itself about whether he was innocent or guilty, the film opts for a different approach, making itself into a story offering little resolution. Created to make audiences uncomfortable, to make them uncomfortable, they would need to first care. Satisfied with operating solely on a surface level, that process proved difficult.

Other than bouts of haphazard camerawork, focusing on hands and not as focused dialog scenes, these moments quickly add up and become distracting for audiences. For a film that one would think style over substance is not appropriate, it only further advances the theory that all these choices are a means to distract from its glaring lack of substance. Though it may say all the right things and means well, it doesn’t add anything new to the conversation, losing the point in muddying the waters. All things considered, in spite of its issues, the best part of After the Hunt is its aforementioned all-star cast. Roberts makes the most out of its meatiest role, absolutely commanding the screen with her movie star stature. Playing a deeply flawed character in Alma, the character begins to fall apart when the film is dealing with matters below the surface. Similarly, Edibiri brings her own signature charm and a vulnerability to the tortured Maggie, something that it neglects to explore. Garfield plays against type as Hank, a man vehemently adamant of his innocence. Stealing scenes in his limited screen time, he and Edibiri are, for the most part, pushed aside in favor of Roberts. However, there is decent chemistry there between the three, but the material just wasn’t there.

At the end of the day, After the Hunt is a disappointment that could have been so much more, having all the right pieces but failing to put them together.

still courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.