Julia Roberts’ towering performance can’t save After The Hunt

Just one of the 10 highest-grossing films worldwide this year is an original film, and it’s about Formula One – it’s hardly Raymond Chandler.

In this climate of sequels and franchises being the guaranteed money makers in cinemas, it’s easy to feel disillusioned about the state of cinema and to crave a well-written drama with big movie stars about a big social issue.

After The Hunt is proof that maybe, just maybe, general audiences have a point about wanting the same tried and tested franchise formula.

A wild misfire from Italian director Luca Guadagnino, After The Hunt has big names like Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield tackle a fraught issue – sexual assault on a college campus and the social milieu surrounding “cancellation” – with sledgehammer delicacy.

The involvement of Julia Roberts in a big, buzzy awards season drama is enough to turn heads, and on paper, it’s easy to see why she did this movie.

Fellow European auteur Yorgos Lanthimos has helped transform the careers of stars like Colin Farrell and Emma Stone with difficult, challenging roles, and it’s clear that Roberts wanted a slice of the same pie.

Roberts, to her credit, gives her best performance since her Oscar-winning turn in Erin Brockovich; it’s just a shame the film fails to meet her on her level.

Even when the script utterly fails her, Roberts is still giving 120% and she sandblasts the “America’s Sweetheart” reputation she held for so long; she gives a bad script a performance it doesn’t deserve (see also: Joaquin Phoenix in Joker).

Roberts stars as a philosophy lecturer at Yale University, and she seemingly has it all; on the path to tenure, a beautiful Nancy Meyers-style house, the affection of her students and a marriage to a smart psychologist.

When one of her philosophy students, played by The Bear star Ayo Edebiri, confides in her that she was assaulted by a member of staff (played by Andrew Garfield), the lines between her personal life and her professional life start to blur.

It’s a strong hook for a film; it’s a shame it ends up being simultaneously heavy-handed and dim.

It’s evident that After The Hunt fancies itself as a big “message movie” in the style of a Douglas Sirk or a Mike Nichols, using big Hollywood stars to explore the social issues of the day.

There are small hints that we are not supposed to take this movie at face value and to question what we see, much like Tár.

Readers with a long memory may recall we placed Tár highly on our year-end 10 back in 2023, arguing it was one of the most audacious films Hollywood has made in years – and After The Hunt is trying hard to ape what made that film so special.

After The Hunt covers a lot of the same ground as Tár; accusations of assault, academia politics, the court of public opinion, a blackly comic undercurrent, and a knowing wink to the audience not to treat everything the movie tells you as gospel.

The key difference is that Luca Guadagnino and first-time writer Nora Garrett don’t have the delicacy of Todd Field.

Tár’s deconstruction and exploration of the court of public opinion was handled with scalpel-like precision and clinicalness, with the dark humour flowing through it like a current.

After The Hunt explores the same themes with no tact or grace; if the micro-budget Sorry, Baby can explore the same themes with dignity and humility, there is no excuse for a big-budget studio film.

The film tries to have its cake and eat it too, with the line “not everything is supposed to make you comfortable” used in the marketing for the film; in the context of the film itself, it falls flat.

After The Hunt has the tone and attitude of the most annoying person you know, a pseudo-intellectual who thinks listening to one podcast on a topic makes them an authority on the topic.

The film makes the critical mistake of conflating being edgy with being interesting.

Message movies in and of themselves aren’t a bad thing – some of Hollywood’s greatest movies are based on the social issues of their day – but with a lot being made of After The Hunt being something of an elegy for the #MeToo era, it ends up having nothing to say at all.

The script thinks it’s saying something profound about “kids these days” and how they are too sensitive for their own good, but what is written as Aaron Sorkin comes across more as Mary Whitehouse.

It’s rare for a film to be well-directed, well-acted and well-shot but have a script that feels both undercooked and overcooked at the same time

Guadagnino is no stranger to these pages – last year alone, he put out Challengers and Queer – so his name being just as prominent as Roberts in the marketing is an indication of what to expect.

At his best, Guadagnino explores messy, complicated characters with a delicate and humanistic touch, and at his worst, he tends to let scenes go on for a beat too long or mishandle the tone of a given scene.

The pairing of Guadagnino and Roberts largely works, and as mentioned, seeing Roberts becoming an icy, curt academic is a breath of fresh air after so many years of playing the sweetheart. Edebiri has somewhat struggled to figure out where they fit after The Bear became a breakout hit; her career choices are correct on paper (of course, you sign up to act for Luca Guadagnino and James L Brooks and say no to Marvel), but there is a sense that she is slightly out of her depth here.

She is facing the same problem most young actors face after a big breakout on TV, they try to make it in the movies, and it doesn’t quite land.

In the scenes where Roberts is all domineering and putting in near career-best work, it feels like watching the Irish football team play Spain or Argentina; they are putting in a respectable effort, but the gulf in quality is too difficult to overcome.

After The Hunt is designed to split opinion; the film is just as likely to get an Oscar nomination for Roberts as it is to crash and burn at the box office and with critics.

For a film that wants to “have the conversation,” it feels like it turned up to class without doing its homework and is trying to get it done in the five minutes before the teacher collects it.