Perhaps the most interesting thing about Luca Guadagnino’s jumbled, wildly unfocused accusation drama After the Hunt is that it’s shot on the campus of Yale University. Apparently, nobody there took time to read Nora Garrett’s screenplay; drama-free, poorly orchestrated and self-important that it is. While the starry ensemble does its best with the material, it’s hard to escape the feeling that there’s a better movie on this topic out there, perhaps on the cutting room floor.
Julia Roberts stars as Yale University philosophy professor Alma Inhoff. She’s basically a feminist rock star on campus, idolized by her students, including Maggie Price (Ayo Edibiri), whose feelings for Alma may go beyond the student/mentor relationship. There’s also Alma’s flirty colleague, Hank (Andrew Garfield), who buzzes around like a gadfly stirring shit up. It’s at a swanky party at the home shared by Alma and her psychoanalyst husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), where a drunken Hank walks Maggie home at the end of the night. Shortly thereafter, Maggie shows up at Alma’s door with an accusation that Hank did something he shouldn’t have. Alma’s first reaction isn’t great.
After the Hunt is less about the truth of what happened than it is about where Alma will place her trust. Does she believe Maggie’s word, or does she put her faith in Hank’s innocence? A number of red herrings are introduced to add to the ambiguity, but they all feel like distractions. Alma’s up for tenure and stressed out about it. There’s also the chance she’s allowed herself to be won over by Maggie’s affections, not to mention her parents’ substantial donations. Frederik suspects there’s something more going on with all of Alma’s devotees, but he can’t seem to decide quite how to feel about it. His reactions seem to sway with the need of the script at the moment, not because they make rational sense. Unfortunately, this inconsistency is a problem throughout and never goes away. The script is written so vaguely that After the Hunt carries no momentum; it just sits there lifeless and indecisive.
A key problem is that Alma isn’t particularly sympathetic, nor is she that interesting. If everyone at Yale is like her and her colleagues, spouting off inflammatory ideas and looking pleased with themselves for it, you’d never want to go there nor support her for anything. A traumatic event in her past, the discovery of a long-held secret, and a health crisis all seem to have been manufactured out of nowhere to make us feel something for her. But you know it’s failing when a fired-up, frustrated Alma tears to shreds a handful of her naive students for not thinking exactly as she does, and the scene just falls limp. After the Hunt doesn’t seem to know what it’s trying to say or who it wants to say it. A blaring, distracting score pounds at you, as if trying to cover up for the utter lack of tension, but what this film needs more than anything is a screenwriting tutor.
After the Hunt is in select theaters now, expanding on October 17th from Amazon MGM Studios.
