2025   Amazon MGM Studios

Rated:  R

Length:  2 hr  18min

Drama ~ Psychological Thriller

Directed by:  Luca Guadagnino

Starring:  Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny.

Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable.

FROM AMAZON PRIME:

AFTER THE HUNT is a gripping pychological thriller about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.

“A Gripping Psychological Thriller…..”

I would hardly call it gripping, borderline boring, and definitely not thrilling. More of a “where is all this leading?” quandary as you watch and wonder. The very beginning of the movie starts out with the very loud ticking of a clock. So loud it was immediately annoying, and I had to pause the movie to make sure it wasn’t something else I was hearing. It wasn’t, it was in the movie soundtrack. It was odd because they didn’t even show a clock, I kept waiting for one. It seemed to last forever until it finally abated, only to show up obnoxiously halfway through the movie, just as loud. The only thing I can assume is that it was meant for dramatic effect, apparently to add a heightened sense of tension. Which, as far as I can tell, failed in it’s mission because it seemed to have no relation to the film or the storyline.

The Characters:

In the beginning, as we meet the characters in the movie, Alma (Julia Roberts) and her husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) are throwing a dinner party at their lavish house. Alma, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) and Hank (Andrew Garfield) are engaged in a very philosophical debate about the current state of man and education. It came across as very contrived philosophy forced onto actors playing the part. Hank and Alma are both up for tenure at Yale, and Maggie is Alma’s brightest student. Hank and Alma were also lovers in the past, as we find out later in the movie, which is part of the supposed tension and drama. It didn’t really come across that way, although there was some solid chemistry between Julia and Andrew. Hubbie Frederik came across as a bit of a weirdo, it was hard to imagine that Julia and Michael were a married couple, more like The Odd Couple.

The Actors: 

We all love Julia Roberts, hopefully. As I watched her I couldn’t help but compare her in this to some of her other roles like Pretty Woman, Ocean’s Eleven, The Pelican Brief, and one of my all time favorite movies, Erin Brokovich. I don’t think this role was right for her, although she did a fine job with it. I think that had more to do with the directing and the story itself. Andrew Garfield is a Streaming Movie Night Favorite: Hacksaw Ridge, We Live In Time, Spider Man….Andrew is a charismatic, lovable Character Actor. He does some fine dramatic acting in this movie, but again, some of it fell flat thanks to the directing. Ayo Edebiri as Maggie came across as contrived, clunky in her motions and scenes. People don’t act like that, pun intended, but again I think it was the script, story or the directing.

The Less Than Thrilling Drama:

I didn’t set out to bash this movie, although as I look at what I have written, it sure feels that way. There were scenes that really didn’t make sense to me, for example:

• • Maggie rooting through the bathroom linen closest looking for toilet paper, ransacking the entire closet all the way to the bottom shelf. Then leaning over and in far enough to find the envelope Alma had taped to the underside of the shelf, to hide it from the world. Then opening it and taking something from inside it……
  • Frederik getting upset at the dinner table with Maggie for no apparent reason, then turning into a complete ass, grabbing his plate and storming off. Then playing music at such a loud obnoxious volume…for what? That was not clear to me.
  • Alma stealing blank prescriptions from her friend Dr. Sayers office and then forging a prescription for pain meds while she is trying to walk the straight and narrow line to a Tenure position at Yale. Doesn’t make sense.

I feel like I need to stop the bashing, again, that is not what I intended when I started writing this, but that is what I feel like I am doing. My expectations were high given the star power of Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield. But for me, it didn’t deliver. They were great but the movie itself felt disjointed, and as a whole, contrived and over dramatized. Somewhere about an hour and a half into it I thought, “How long has it been, how long is this movie?” I was a little dismayed when I saw I still had a ways to go.

The hook at the end, the secret that Alma was hiding, the thing that Maggie discovered about Alma and tried to use against her, was anti-climatic. I think it was supposed to pull it all together but it just kind of fell flat. It was disappointing, I found myself thinking, “That’s it? That’s what I waded almost two and a half hours through…….for that?”

So while it features some great acting by Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, the direction and story felt like they missed the mark. In hindsight I do see what it could have been, a better movie…a great movie. But for me, it didn’t get there. I wouldn’t waste almost two and a half hours on After The Hunt again.

We Live In Time