Dir. Daniel Nettheim
Wr. Alice Addison
Based on the novel by Julia Leigh
Anther day, another Australian thriller. Story-wise this one has a lot going for it. The premise is interesting and topical.
A mercenary is sent to the wilds of Tasmania to kill and retrieve samples from the last Tasmanian Tiger.
The build is good all the way through to the climax but it’s really hard to write a satisfying resolution, isn’t it?
I haven’t read the book and I guess the writer was probably trying to remain faithful to the material she was working with but there were some key moments that undermined the whole script.
Some advice I was given recently was – if there’s a wall you’ve got to climb it. Which means you can’t spend the whole story on one side of a wall and never show the audience what’s on the other side. Give the audience what they want.
A really good script will give the audience what they didn’t realize they wanted. Unpredictable but resolved.
In The Hunter there are too many set ups and not enough pay offs. Without giving too much away, there’s a character that I like who is killed unexpectedly. The audience is told about it 3rd hand and doesn’t get to grieve. It didn’t leave me feeling sad, just cold.
Story is all about emotional engagement. You don’t want to manipulate your audience but you do need to be aware of what’s happening for them all the time. The Hunter just wasn’t audience focused.
And does the man find the Tiger, you ask? Hmm? Well…
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