Title: After the Hunt
MPA Rating: R
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield
Runtime: 2 hrs 18 mins

What It Is: Alma (Roberts) is a professor of philosophy at Yale. When Maggie (Edebiri) a star pupil confides in Alma about an incident between her and Alma’s colleague Hank (Garfield) Alma is uncertain how to take it. She speaks with her husband Fredrik (Michael Stuhlbarg) about it and even confronts Hank. Now she’s got a lot of things from her own dark past rearing their ugly head. Things that Alma may not want coming to light.

What We Think: This has to be the biggest disappointment of the year for me. When you look at the pedigree of this cast and the previous work from director Luca Guadagnino this should’ve worked so much better and been front of the line for awards consideration. It isn’t, and it shouldn’t be. The script is, in and of itself an unmitigated disaster. Bland and uninteresting in the worst ways. I have certain expectations of Guadagnino at this point. With the fantastic Bones and All I thought “whatever he does next is going to be huge”. It was not. Instead we’re left with a very empty film that doesn’t feel like it offers resolution. Sure the ending gives us a little bow at the end but it somehow still feels wholly unsatisfying. That said the performances are pretty good in spite of the bore the film is as a whole.

Our Grade: C-, Come for the big names, stay because you enjoy going through painful experiences. I really wanted something more out of this. I’m not sure who to recommend this for either. Audiences of Luca’s previous work are probably going to be bored and see through the disingenuous nature of the overall affair. Julia Roberts, bless her and her immense talent cannot save this stinker.