The Hunter (2012)

Expected more

Best movie ever!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I didn't know much about the film, but the very fact that it deals with the "Tasmanian tiger" was enough reason to watch it. As a child I had a book about Australian wildlife and one chapter dealt with the thylacine - I prefer that name because it looks so little like a tiger to me. It was so sad to read that the warden in the zoo in Hobart realized that with the death of the last thylacine a whole species had died. It is easy to understand why it such a popular animal: on the one hand it looks like a dog, but on the other hand it is so completely different - just like some kind of extraterrestrial pet. I hope to the efforts of the last years to recreate it through its DNA will be successful but I am rather pessimistic.But now back to the film! I have to admit that I was not 100 % enthusiastic about it. Although it has a mystic atmosphere, the pace of the action is very slow. Apart from the last half hour very little happens. Although William Dafoe's acting was not bad, I had difficulty to identify with the main characters. For me the two real stars of the film were the Tasmanian landscape – and the thylacine itself. I was so completely convinced that it would remain a phantom until the end, that it was a shock for me to see it alive at the entrance of the cave, so small and vulnerable. And after less than a minute the hunter shoots it and burns it, so that even the hope to save its DNA is gone. A sad ending to a sad film.

The first 10 minutes are good. And then the final 10 minutes are good. Everything in the middle is nothing but filler. Slow and boring filler. It was like the director didn't have enough footage to work with and just started throwing in a bunch of scene just to make the movie at least an hour and thirty minutes long. This film is about a man, Willem Dafoe who is contracted out to hunt down a Tasmanian tiger for a biotech company. The movie is based on a novel and I'm sure there was a lot in the novel to focus on but the director seemed to give us nothing but Willem Dafoe talking to kids and walking around in the jungle setting off illegal traps. Maybe it was the screen writer's fault? I don't know. If Willem Dafoe wasn't in this movie, I would have stopped watching this after 20 minutes. And don't be fooled by the title or synopsis, this movie has no action. Maybe a minute of action in total. One thing good I can say about it is that it is actually filmed in Tasmania. So it has that going for it. And the only reason I'm giving this at least a 5 out of 10 is because Defoe's acting is great, as always.

Using the idea of tracking the last Tassie Tiger to tell a larger tale could have failed badly, but in this case, it was handled with such subtlety, it lets the viewer tease out the story for him or herself, making it a far better movie. In some respects, it reminds me of *The Constant Gardener* in the sense of pitting human conspiratorial greed vs. nature and local populations. But it also tells an amazing story of human relationships by showing a parallel between the endangered/extinct animal and several different characters. (I urge you to keep an open mind about the symbolism, it is multi-layered.) It unfolds carefully, but builds suspense from the beginning. It lets the viewer ascertain the characters and their motivations for him or herself. The acting was pitch perfect all around, the cinematography was beautiful, and the score was perfect. If you keep your expectations reasonable (e.g., don't expect an action-heavy movie), you will be impressed by a real thriller that will leave you breathless with the climax and with a lump in your throat at the denouement.

The Hunter is a thoughtful yet tense thriller that seamlessly comes together. It's well developed plot quietly builds, entangling local town politics with a rapacious corporation hellbent on finding the thought-to- be-extinct Tasmanian Tiger; caught in the middle is Martin David, the Hunter.After just thirty minutes of the film, I was already adding Tasmania to my mental, "places I want to go before I die", list. Filmed against a series of amazing Tasmanian backdrops, the scenery on show in the Hunter is certainly beautiful, with a haunting soundtrack to match. Excellent writing and directing, teamed with all-round solid performances from the cast, allow you to truly feel involved with the characters in a somewhat surprisingly emotional story-line.I highly Recommend.