Movie Review for The Hunting Party (2007)

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Review #522 of 365
Movie Review of The Hunting Party (2007) [R] 103 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $12.75
Where Viewed: United Artists Denver Pavilions Stadium 15, Denver, CO
When 1st Seen: 8 September 2007
Time: 7:00 pm
DVD Release Date: 22 January 2008 (click date to purchase or pre-order)
Film's Official Website • Film's Trailer

Soundtrack: Download now from Rolfe Kent - The Hunting Party - or - order the CD below

Directed by: Richard Shepard (The Matador)
Screenplay by : Richard Shepard (The Matador)

Featured Cast (Where You Might Remember Him/Her From):
Richard Gere (The Hoax) • Terrence Howard (Pride) • Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) • Diane Kruger (Joyeux Noël) • James Brolin (The Alibi) • Dylan Baker (Spider-Man 3) • Mark Ivanir (The Good Shepherd) • Ljubomir Kerekes (Libertas)

Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
Click to read the spoiler points for The Hunting Party
What if you were one of the world's most recognized television news reporters due to your heroic or fool-hearty willingness to venture into the eye of the maelstrom that is a war zone to interview the people most directly impacted and get footage no one else would even dream of daring to acquire using your trusty sidekick and gonzo cameraman to do some of the real dirty work? Then you would be journalist Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and his equally award-winning cameraman, Duck (Terrence Howard) in Richard Shepard's film, The Hunting Party, inspired by the Esquire magazine article, "What I did on my Summer Vacation" by Scott Anderson. Simon and Duck have been there and done that when it comes to reporting the stories from the front lines for years on the network evening news. All of this, however, has come with a heavy price for Simon who, one day, while reporting from Bosnia, loses it on air despite attempts by anchor Franklin Harris (James Brolin) to save him from himself, and is promptly fired by the network.
"Good intentions, good writing, good acting, find themselves unable to live up to the tenor of the true story which required them all to be great not just good."
His outburst becomes the fodder of journalism students for years to come, while Duck gets offered the position as director of photography for the nightly news—in other words, one goes down the tubes and the other skyrockets to the top of his game. Years pass, and, eventually, the two lose touch. Simon stays alive by reporting stories nobody wants to internationally run media outlets of which no one has ever heard. On the 5th-year anniversary to the end of the war that captivated the world and tore apart the former nation of Yugoslavia (host of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo), the former best friends are reunited as if by fate. The network has flown Franklin and Duck over to cover the anniversary and Simon is on site because he's got a secret mission of his own. The network vice president has sent along his son, Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg) to get his feet wet on what should be a relatively mundane assignment. That is, until, Simon breaks into Duck's hotel room and tries to convince him to join him on a mission to interview and then capture one of the war's greatest criminals known as The Fox (Ljubomir Kerekes). Responsible for the raping and murder of thousands of innocent women and children during his war of ethnic cleansing, getting to The Fox, it will turn out is more personal than pragmatic for Hunt. (see spoiler points for more plot details) Despite the danger, he persuades Duck to give up a vacation in Greece with his girlfriend to help him on this personal mission. Jesse, meanwhile, apparently having learned nothing at Harvard, worms his way onto the mission. The rest of the story then concerns their collective antics and attempts to locate and interview The Fox commingled with revelations to Simon's true motivations in accomplishing this mission.

Opening with a disclaimer that only the most outrageous elements of the film's story are true, invites the audience to participate side-by-side as the story unfolds and ask the burning questions as to how such publicly known, highly-prized, international war criminals can simply disappear off the face of the earth despite enormous bounties on their heads and the theoretically gigantic forces of the world's collective intelligence agencies on their trails. Maybe it's because they are hiding right there in plain sight. Richard Gere's portrayal of Simon Hunt is fully believable though not as breathtaking as his performance earlier in 2007 as Clifford Irving in the vastly under-appreciated, The Hoax. Both men are zealously passionate when it comes to achieving their goals, but Irving was a more challenging role to execute. Meanwhile, Terrence Howard's talent was all but completely wasted as Duck required very little in the way of depth of performance. Nonetheless, he's so darn brilliant, he could make a character whose only job was to wallpaper a carpet salesman's basement interesting. He add nice touches and a deeper inexplicably motivated (here at least) passion to his vocal and facial expressions that compels each word he says to stand and be noticed. The relatively young newcomer, Jesse Eisenberg, with way too long and way too curly hair for an onscreen journalist adds needless, herky-jerky "We're gonna' die" dialogue that weakened the overall impact of the script. His character, in other words, could have been done with out first; and his performance, which bordered on the completely inane, should have been seen from the start as detracting rather than enhancing the flow of the film. While he does partially redeem himself to his fellow characters in the story deeming him mildly useful to the execution of their plan and accomplishment of their goals, it's not enough and far too late to demonstrate this to filmgoers.

While the story has many, many valid points and great one-liners—mostly from Simon such as that which he says in response to Duck's question, "Why when I'm with you do I constantly find my life in danger?" to which Simon replies, "Putting your life in danger is actual living. Everything else is television."; and it has an incredibly powerful moral code and underpinning, it digresses too much and too often. While there is real and imminent danger being faced, its through rose-colored lenses that foster a notion of false security because we know they must live or who would have been able to tell the true story? The result is a film that seems a bit lost in purpose and focus. Good intentions, good writing, good acting, find themselves unable to live up to the tenor of the true story which required them all to be great not just good.

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Other Projects Featuring The Hunting Party (2007)
Cast Members
Richard Gere • Terrence Howard • Jesse Eisenberg
Diane Kruger • James Brolin • Dylan Baker
Mark Ivanir • Ljubomir Kerekes
Director
Richard Shepard
Writer
Richard Shepard
CD Soundtrack


Review-lite The Hunting Party (2007) [max of 150 words]
Richard Shepard's film, The Hunting Party, inspired by the Esquire magazine article, "What I did on my Summer Vacation" by Scott Anderson gives us award-winning journalist Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) and his equally notable cameraman, Duck (Terrence Howard) as they embark on a journey through former war-torn Sarajevo in pursuit of a one of the world's most wanted war criminal masterminds. While the story has many, many valid points and great one-liners and a powerful moral underpinning, it digresses too much and too often. The result is a film that seems a bit lost in purpose and focus. Good intentions, good writing, good acting, find themselves unable to live up to the tenor of the true story which required them all to be great not just good.
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