NEW YORK (OSV News) – Despite the occasional push-back against political correctness in Nora Garrett’s script, viewers committed to traditional values will find themselves adrift in director Luca Guadagnino’s psychological thriller “After the Hunt” (Amazon MGM). Considered from an artistic point of view, moreover, the film is talky, pretentious and tiresome.
Opening scenes introduce us to Yale University philosophy professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts). Following a party at the apartment Alma shares with her somewhat eccentric psychiatrist husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), her faculty colleague and close friend Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield) leaves in the company of Alma’s protege, grad student Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri).
The next day, Maggie appears on her idolized mentor’s doorstep in a disheveled and distraught condition to inform Alma that Hank sexually assaulted her. As the incident burgeons into a campuswide scandal, Alma quickly finds herself caught in the middle of the escalating conflict between these two.
On the verge of receiving tenure but battling a secret illness and grappling with her complicated marriage, Alma is unsure whom to believe or whose side she should take. A mysterious event in her past, of which Maggie has accidentally become aware, also influences Alma’s response to the situation, though the details of this episode are only made clear to the audience much later.
Glimmers of initial interest in Alma’s dilemma are kept glowing briefly by the gifted cast. But they’re ultimately quenched by an atmosphere of insufferable intellectual pompousness as well as by a self-indulgent lack of editing that leads to a needlessly extended running time.
The film contains brief, distant pornographic images, mature themes, lesbian and nonbinary characters, several uses of profanity, a couple of milder oaths, as well as pervasive rough and some crude language. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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