The Hunter stars Willem Dafoe as the titular character. He is an independent contractor with guns tasked by a shady corporation to find and kill the last Tasmanian tiger. Instead he finds himself at the hostile center of a conflict between local loggers and foreign environmentalists with a mourning family as one of the casualties. He reluctantly becomes emotionally invested in the plight of his host family as he discovers parallels between his assignment and the family’s story.
The Hunter was in my queue for the longest time. My expectations compared and contrasted with the actual movie were completely different so I think that I did not enjoy the movie as much as I could have. I also see too many movies so once the titular character arrives in Tasmania, I thought, “Oh, this is a tragic Run & Jump,” knew exactly what was going to happen and lost all interest. If women get certain types of heavily gender based messaging about ticking biological clocks, so do guys except it usually involves a lone wolf, highly skilled, somewhat anti-social man forced to deal with children and a neglected wife due to no fault of the husband.
The Hunter is really about a man questioning his life choices when provided with an opportunity to have an instant family. He then struggles with the personal and ethical implications of discovering that he wants something different than he had before. Because The Hunter is an eco-thriller/mystery and Run & Jump is simply a drama, you can guess that The Hunter’s choices have more life and death implications than the doctor in the latter movie. Both films also use nightly rituals to highlight how different life is before and after the lone wolf meets the family. Dafoe’s character starts by staying in an upscale hotel with all his expensive, electronic equipment and classical music surrounding him as he takes a bath in a pristine tub whereas when he goes to Tasmania, the tub is filthy, there is no electricity and the children invade his personal space. Life as a lone wolf is tidy and controlled, but life with others is messy, chaotic and vibrant.
Dafoe’s character has several foils. The hunt for the Tasmanian tiger resonates emotionally for Dafoe’s character as his loneliness is equated with the loneliness of the creature. His solution to the hunt is supposed to be seen as an act of mercy and revenge, i.e. what he would want if their positions were switched. Because it is not easily done, I am supposed to think that it was beautiful, but I just thought he was just as arrogant by projecting his issues on to an animal that somehow had managed to survive humanity. It is not always about you, bro. The other foils are the family’s husband/father and Sam Neil’s character, and Dafoe’s character must use them as cautionary tales of how to avoid the pitfalls that they fell into.
I love Neil. Because of his starring roles in Jurassic Park and The Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which was released subsequent to The Hunter, he has an innate credibility and adds texture to a role that another actor would need way more time and experience to develop. Fans of Blindspot will be overjoyed that Sullivan Stapleton gets a small role as a logger who is hostile to outsiders.
The Hunter is a beautiful film, but the deliberate pacing and predictability detracted from my enjoyment of it. If you are expecting an action adventure film, this film is not for you, but if you enjoy contemplative films with a masculine veneer, , i.e. Lifetime for Men films, then definitely check it out.