“Only the most ridiculous parts of this movie are true.”
I laughed out loud when that was on the screen. After watching Richard Shepard’s The Hunting Party and reading the Esquire article upon which it is based (“What I Did on My Summer Vacation” by Scott Anderson), I can only marvel at how appropriate the film’s witty opening statement is. Fortunately, the film has much more to offer than this initial display of whimsy, delivering a solid and engaging, if not somewhat flawed, thriller.
Anderson’s article tells the story of how he and four other journalists, over drinks one night in Sarajevo in 2001, decided to find and capture Radovan Karaiæ, a fugitive war criminal. Throughout, Anderson criticizes the seeming inaction and incompetence of the American and UN forces in apprehending war criminals in the region.
The Hunting Party takes its start from this tale, but puts a cinematic spin on events. Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) is a disgraced war correspondent looking to salvage what is left of his career. He enlists the help of his friend and former cameraman Duck (Terrence Howard) to search for The Fox, a war criminal with a price on his head, and hopefully to conduct an interview with the elusive man. Along for the ride is Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg), a recent Harvard journalism graduate looking to make a name for himself. Not everything is as it seems, however; Simon’s motives are far from straightforward, and the three men soon find themselves in a tangled web of intrigue, corruption and mistaken identity.
On some levels, this film really works. Writer/director Richard Shepard injects a streak of dark humor throughout the movie. The journalists always have a quip on hand, and even in the film’s most tense and bleak moments, there will be something to make the audience laugh, whether it is an executioner’s cell phone ringing in the middle of his job or the bickering of our heroes when they face the possibility of death. Shepard also skillfully keeps the heat on and the tension up for the audience as well as the characters.
The film cleverly wraps itself up by telling exactly what is true in the story and what was not, giving the audience a refreshing alternative to guessing which parts were dramatized or real.
Performances are solid across the board. Gere brings an off-kilter charm to Simon Hunt, a character who lives his life by the motto, “Putting your life in danger is living. The rest is just television.” Underneath his seemingly carefree, daredevil way of living, Hunt is a damaged and tortured man with plenty of baggage, an aspect of his character that Gere pulls off wonderfully. Howard plays Duck, who is comfortable, but bored with his network job. He knows his old friend Simon too well, following him against his better judgment, but often falls prey to his desire for excitement. Howard deftly portrays this vacillation between reluctance and curiosity, a vital part of his character. Eisenberg successfully aviods playing Benjamin as a bumbling newbie, instead giving the character confidence, but also an all-consuming fear for his life.
The Hunting Party’s most notable problem is that it suffers from a severe case of split personality. The film is a thriller at its core. There is also, however, an element of political satire, as well as a message about the effect the horrors of war can have on even the most jaded person. In the film, the satire of the UN’s hypocrisy and failure to catch war criminals is biting when it is employed, but comes off more like a succession of punch lines rather than a genuine attempt to unveil incompetence. The horrors of war in this film are quite graphic, but they are only used as a device to give Simon angst (his girlfriend was killed by The Fox and he’s out for revenge). The melodrama of the situation sticks out like a sore thumb in the dark comedy, and acts as an unnecessary impetus in a story that did not need additional motivation.
In the end, though, this extraneous material does not detract so much from the film that it is unbearable to watch. The Hunting Party is an enjoyable, solidly acted thriller that falters slightly at times, but, even in its most true and ridiculous moments, never fails to entertain.