'After the Hunt': Luca Guadagnino's Latest Aims to be Provocative, But Ends Up Being Hollow and Muddled

PHOTO: Amazon MGM Studios

Considering that Luca Guadagnino’s latest film After the Hunt comes with the tagline “Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable”, it is clear that he and screenwriter Nora Garrett hope to deliver something provocative and shocking. That tagline is directly lifted from a scene late in the film where Julia Roberts’s Alma Imhoff is confronting Ayo Edebiri’s Maggie Resnick regarding allegations that have shaken up both of their lives. It is a moment of solid dramatic tension, as Roberts and Edebiri’s back and forth is compelling and demonstrates the generation gap between the two, but it also represents one of the main issues with the film. After the Hunt is more of a Rorschach test than an actual film, as one’s personal attitudes on its subject matter (sexual misconduct, power dynamics, privilege, etc.) as well as one’s general identity greatly influences the messages you get from it. This is a film all about perspectives and how certain factors influence them, whether they be based on age, class, or other social elements. The lack of objectivity in presenting this allows room for thought, but it also lessens any potential provocation the film was hoping to evoke.

The film begins with a dinner party hosted by Yale professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) and her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg). At the end of the night, Alma’s charismatic colleague Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield) walks one of her top PhD candidates, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) home. The next day, Maggie shows up at Alma’s apartment and accuses Hank of sexually assaulting her. While Alma finds her personal and professional life beginning to spiral, a dark secret from her past that she’s spent most of her life trying to keep hidden starts to come to light.

One of the things I appreciate most about Luca Guadagnino is that he is willing to try new things and work in a variety of genres and types of stories. But through the vast majority of his films, there is always some heart and emotion that is present. Depicting human relationships on screen is one of his biggest gifts, especially when it comes to romance. After the Hunt is certainly no romance, but the plot moves along due to the relationship dynamics between its characters. There are varying levels of animosity felt between most of the characters in the film, and any semblance of love or admiration is either miniscule or non-existent. This isn’t a bad thing as it makes sense in context, but it is clear that Guadagnino isn’t exactly the right man for the job in making this element work. He has proven that he can handle complicated characters in the past, but the characters in this film are so cold that they feel a little unnatural in his hands. Thankfully, he has a talented cast that can help make up for this, but Guadagnino feels a little out of his depth at times. The blurred lines of the relationships between our main three actors (Roberts, Garfield, and Edebiri) do contribute to the film’s questioning of truth and varying perspectives, but there is such an artifice to almost every relationship that makes the film feel hollow. 

Perhaps the best adjective to describe this film is confused, as it has some good ideas, but doesn’t have the follow-through to back it up. I get that the film is deliberately ambiguous for much of the run-time, but it causes the film’s ultimate message to feel basic and kind of muddled. The film is so concerned with being “shocking” that it often has little to say beyond some surface level thoughts on privilege, sexual assault, and personal/professional boundaries. This even extends to the Woody Allen-styled credits that bookend the film, which feel like little more than a cheeky affectation. There is much that could be gleaned from the film’s themes, but Guadagnino and Garrett are more content to gesture towards them and say “That’s pretty messed up, huh?” and leave it at that. 

The mixed messaging of the film does seem intentional, but it also contributes to its confusion. It keeps things ambiguous, daring the viewer to question the actions and intentions of the characters. This is mostly a good thing, but it begs the question of what the film is actually trying to say. For the most part, it seems to suggest that young, privileged people are ill-equipped for real world problems and that older generations know what real struggles are. There is a strange contempt for the film’s younger characters that can be felt in certain moments. This is especially evident during a scene between Alma and Chloë Sevigny’s character, Kim, where they explicitly discuss how spoiled the students at Yale tend to be. This also extends to some scenes with Maggie, where the film is trying to make you question her actions but it seems to treat her with a bit more scrutiny than some of the other characters. It could be argued that this is because much of the film is from Alma’s point-of-view, but it still feels a little off in practice. 

The film falls apart in its third act, largely due to two moments that are meant to be big reveals but don’t feel as shocking as they are intended to be. I won’t spoil these moments, but suffice to say that one feels pretty obvious and retroactively makes some of the film’s earlier choices seem a bit questionable, and the other is just strangely executed. I can see what the film is going for in that latter moment, and it helps make sense of certain details regarding Alma and her behavior, but it is handled awkwardly. And then, there’s the film’s epilogue, which fell flat for me. I might have felt differently about this had the film allowed for any deeper connection with its characters, but it instead makes the film end on a half-hearted shrug as opposed to anything meaningful. 

As mentioned earlier, the film has a talented cast to help make something of this film. Julia Roberts gives one of her better performances, trading her usual charm for a more guarded, stoic demeanor. She gives herself fully to the character, finding humanity within her and nailing her complicated feelings and actions throughout the film. It’s great to see Roberts really sink her teeth into a role like this, and she really elevates the character. Andrew Garfield is also quite good, using his natural charm and charisma in ways that are both effective and unnerving. There is an inherent distrust that comes out in his characterization that makes him all the more interesting to watch, and plays into the film’s ambiguity quite well. Ayo Edebiri is good, but is underserved by the script. She does what she can with what she’s given, but there is only so much she can do to salvage the character. Michael Stuhlbarg’s performance is perhaps the most interesting, as his role is perhaps the weakest on the page, but he does so much to make his character memorable and kind of likable. It comes off effortlessly, and it is easily one of strongest performances in the whole film. 

After the Hunt is thought-provoking, but the thoughts it provokes aren’t incredibly substantial. More often than not, the film gets so stuck on being provocative that it forgets to follow through on the ideas it explores. The cast makes up for some of its shortcomings, but the film still suffers from a muddled message and a lack of focus. I appreciate that Luca Guadagnino wanted to step out of his comfort zone a bit, but this is certainly a misfire from him. It wants so badly to be daring and shocking, but it only ends up being toothless and vaguely intriguing at best.

Rating: 2.5/5