 Tagline: Some mysteries should never be solved Martin David, a skilled and focused mercenary, is sent into the Tasmanian wilderness on a hunt for a tiger believed to be extinct. Hired by an anonymous company that wants the tiger's genetic material, Martin arrives in Tasmania posing as a scientist. He proceeds to set up base camp at a broken-down farmhouse, where he stays with a family whose father has gone missing. Usually a loner, Martin becomes increasingly close to the family; however, as his attachment to the family grows, Martin is led down a path of unforeseen dangers, complicating his deadly mission. Storyline: The independent and lonely hunter Martin David is hired by the powerful biotech company Red Leaf to hunt down the last Tasmanian tiger. Red Leaf is interested in the DNA of the animal and Martin travels to Tasmania alone. He poses as a researcher from a university and lodges in the house of Lucy Armstrong. Martin learns that Lucy's husband has been missing for a long time and he befriends her children, Sass and Bike. When Martin goes to the village, he has a hostile reception from the locals. Along the days, Martin spends his days in the Tasmanian wilderness chasing the Tiger and becomes closer and closer to the Armstrong family. But Red Leaf wants results no matter the costs. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Casey Broadwater on June 26, 2012 -- At the heart of The Hunter is a search for the thylacine, a.k.a. Tasmanian Tiger, the striped and dog-headed marsupial that presumably went extinct in the early twentieth century due to over-aggressive population control. The last known captive specimen died in a zoo in 1936, but ever since there have been nearly 4,000 unconfirmed sightings. In 1973, a couple even captured ten seconds of 8mm home movie footage showing an animal that looks quite like the thylacine loping across a road in South Australia. There's at least a chance—however small—that the creatures are still around in dwindling numbers inside the island's dense old growth forests. For Tasmanians, the Tassie Tiger has taken on Big Foot status—legendary and elusive, the stuff of local lore. But it's also a potent symbol of the negative impact humans have had on the environment through deforestation and animal bounty hunting. If we found a living thylacine, would that make us feel any better about ourselves as a species? And is there possibly redemption in the ongoing—though increasingly futile—efforts to clone a Tasmanian Tiger? The questions remain in the background of The Hunter—which might be classified as an eco-thriller—while in the foreground the film focuses on the atonement of an individual man. That man is Martin David (Willem Defoe), a mercenary hunter whom we meet in a Paris hotel as he waits for his latest client. We can tell two things about him immediately; one, he's rather refined for a hired gun—he listens to opera as he bathes—and two, he's a lone wolf, unattached and traveling light. In the lobby, he meets with a rep for Red Leaf, a "military biotech" firm that's hiring him to go to middle-of-nowhere Tasmania, where his mission is to track down a recently sighted tiger, kill it, and bring back only hair and tissue samples, destroying the rest. The DNA is only important to Red Leaf if they have "exclusive ownership." Already, we're getting into some thorny ethical territory, thick with the promise of danger. It only gets more tangled when Martin arrives in the Tasmanian outback, posing as a university biologist on a research trip. Suspicious local guide Jack Mindy—a sadly underutilized Sam Neill—has set him up with a rented room in the home of Lucy Armstrong (Frances O'Connor), a depressed widowed mother of two whose environmentalist husband, Jarrah, mysteriously went missing in the mountains the previous summer. Judging by the hostile reception Martin gets in the blue-collar logging town's only pub, it's quite possible that Jarrah's death was no accident. There's a cold war of sorts between the timber industry and the tree-hugging "greenies" who want to halt deforestation, and Martin's cover story isn't gaining him many friends. His accommodations aren't exactly welcoming either; Lucy has self-medicated into a sleeping pill stupor, leaving the house in disarray and forcing her kids—outspoken Sass (Morgana Davies) and her mute brother Bike (Finn Woodlock)—to essentially fend for themselves. Australian writer/director Daniel Nettheim's film is at its best when Martin is tracking his evasive quarry, setting up survivalist-style traps, hiking alone through the woods, and getting a lay of the impossibly beautiful land. Shot on location in the wilds of Tasmania's central plateau, The Hunter is certainly visually evocative—all moss and spitting snow, lush forests and outcrops of rock. There's a Hemingway/Jack London-ish quality to these scenes of isolation in the wilderness, and it's engaging enough just to watch Willem Defoe move stealthily through the environment, his face as craggy and stoic as the landscape. Basing his screenplay on a novel of the same name by Julia Hunter—who made her own filmmaking debut last year with the unnerving psychosexual drama Sleeping Beauty—Nettheim draws clear similarities between Martin and the ghostly tiger he's hunting. Both are predators, and both are accustomed to being alone. Of course, there's more to the story than just a glorified nature walk. Martin begins to suspect that he's not the only one searching for the tiger—he hears gunshots, and finds a motion-activated digital camera—and back in relative civilization, tensions with the loggers escalate. Some details about Jarrah's own work in the forest are also revealed, causing Martin's paranoia and self-doubt to increase. Nettheim generates a good deal of dread with his slow tracking shots through the forest, but there's not much to the thriller aspects of the film, unfortunately. That said, and without spoiling anything, Martin's inevitable encounter with the thylacine is haunting and emotionally loaded. "It's probably better off extinct," Lucy says at one point, hinting at the will-he-or-won't-he-kill-it conundrum of Martin's mission. Though essential to Martin's character arc, Lucy and her kids are the film's weakest narrative link. The Hunter thankfully doesn't jam in an unnecessary romance between Lucy and Martin, but certain aspects of their relationship move much too fast to be believable. For instance, how is it that Martin can get her off sleeping pills and into a comparatively chipper mood seemingly overnight? And although Martin's transformation from a cold loner to an accidental father figure is well-handled, the film's heart-swelling ending isn't, with a sense of catharsis that just isn't earned. Nonetheless, The Hunter is worth watching for the gorgeous scenery, the questions the film raises about the three E's—extinction, ethics, and environmentalism—and the subtle power of Willem Defoe's performance. My one bit of advice: Don't expect The Hunter to be anything like last year's lupine thriller, The Grey. This is a more subdued story— with, forgive me, less bite—and those looking for amped up man versus nature action will most likely be disappointed. The film is entrancing in its own quiet way, though—even without a plot I could enjoyably watch Willem Defoe set traps in the woods for ninety minutes—and while it stumbles at the end with an emotional payoff that it doesn't quite earn, The Hunter does present some provocative questions about extinction and loneliness. As usual, Magnolia's Blu-ray presentation is excellent, with great picture quality and sound, and the disc includes some worthwhile special features too. Recommended. Cast Notes: Willem Dafoe (Martin David), Frances O'Connor (Lucy Armstrong), Sam Neill (Jack Mindy), Morgana Davies (Sass Armstrong), Finn Woodlock (Bike Armstrong), Jacek Koman (Middleman), Callan Mulvey (Rival Hunter), John Brumpton (Publican), Dan Wyllie (Pool Player), Sullivan Stapleton (Doug), Jamie Timony (Free), Dan Spielman (Simon), Maia Thomas (Shakti), Marc Watson-Paul (Jarrah). User Comment: lasimp from Australia, 11 October 2011 • I live in Tasmania and I know the country well enough. When I moved here in the 70's it was still considered possible that somehow the tiger had survived in some remote part of the island . Not So. Decades of intensive forestry and clearing and no hints of survival. Still the tantalizing reports occasionally surface. The animal has moved on to pure mythology. Into that scenario comes this beautifully filmed Eco thriller that has a great story line but is also about our beautiful island. The scenes are artfully mixed from various places in Tasmania and the original footage of the tiger is reproduced again for the big screen. How thrilling it was to see that old footage of the thirties (last definite sightings) again.This is the last surviving footage of a peak predator that was not a dog or cat relative but a marsupial and very strange. The film builds slowly and carefully, William Defoe is in a great role which he carries off so well Frances O'Connor and the kids are just entirely in the role! Go see this film if you have the chance and enjoy a beautiful movie I have avoided all discussion of the final 20 minutes go see it and be so surprised!! Its a beautiful and at times tense movie. Summary: Great Dafoe, magnificent Tasmania, powerful Silence. [CSW] -4.5- . There is no way that I could say it any better than this Netflix reviewer: "Very slow, very good. William Defoe (actually almost all the acting is very well done) and the cinematography makes a simple script work wonderfully. Great surprise! I wish it was easier to find great movies like this. In an age were major movies goals are to achieve nothing but maximum profit at all cost, this is a diamond in the rough. Enjoy it!" Or this one: "A patient, emotional drama about a mercenary-type loner who discovers what he's really been looking for all this time. Willem Dafoe's performance cannot be praised enough, as the movie relied on him to make the seemingly dull look watchable, and he did it with a grace rarely seen. The guy could make 100 minutes of setting traps entertaining. The cinematography is also worth a mention, as the camerawork was just as important as Dafoe in making the wilderness a beautiful sight, while also putting a daunting tone to its endless evergreens. It's a bit slow, and the 2nd act drags out a thin middle, but the ending is a satisfying one. Dafoe is the reason to watch, and his hunter's discovery of a deeper spiritually is a worthy trip." Again, enjoy it! I did and I might add this to my collection. [V4.0-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box. IMDb Rating (08/18/12): 6.8/10 from 9,954 users
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