We spend quite a fair bit of the film watching Alma – played by the incomparable Julia Roberts – be in considerable pain. She’s clutching her stomach in the aftermath of a dinner party, she’s throwing up into a toilet moments before she has to teach a class, barely holding it together as she waits for her subscription to be filled at the pharmacy. This begs the question: if she’s in so much pain, why does she not do something about it? Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt wants us to consider how each generation deals with pain, and how that difference leads to the situations these characters find themselves in.
For Alma, a Philosophy professor at Yale, she deals with pain the only way she knows how, through repression and compartmentalisation. She doesn’t talk about it, she doesn’t let anyone in – much to the chagrin of her woefully underappreciated husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) – and carries it silently because of the self-blame she continuously lashes herself with. So when her grad student Maggie (Ayo Edebiri) tells her she’s been sexually assaulted by another professor, she doesn’t understand what her role should be. Moreover, that professor, Hank (Andrew Garfield), is a close friend of Alma’s. Maggie is seeking empathy and some form of commiseration from a fellow woman, but Alma stands firmly on the peripheries, giving her advice but not the emotional support she so desperately desires.
The contrast between the two women is evident. Maggie is from a different generation – as a young Black woman she feels the need to speak about her pain, her trauma. So everything Alma gives her doesn’t sit well with her. This is especially disconcerting for Maggie as she’s modelled herself after Alma. She wears similar clothing, similar jewellery, even her nail colour is the exact same as Alma’s. But is she content to be a complete facsimile when Alma herself is so hollow? Is she supposed to stay quiet because to do otherwise would lead to the ruin of her academic career? There is no perfect choice for the victim, and that’s the whole point.
It’s honestly such a shame that this film is getting such mixed reviews, because Julia Roberts is so so good. On paper, Alma is not meant to be likeable, but Roberts plays her in a way that allows us to understand her. She responds imperfectly to everyone around her because she does not conform to how they want her to be, in part due to the emotional baggage that she carries. Maggie wants her to be more maternal, Frederik wants her attention and to be the object of her desire, while Hank wants to be her – to be as shiny and worthy of admiration. She can come across as cruel, especially in her rejection of Frederik, but this fixed way of being is all she knows how to be.
The film lingers on the hands of the characters, which allow us to understand the dynamic between them. Maggie places her hand on Alma’s and is rebuffed; we get a close-up of Frederik massaging Alma’s legs only for her to move them away from his touch. The camera focuses on their eyes, their faces, their little tics and gestures, and we focus too, trying to catch a glimpse of the truth when the reality is that the full truth will always be elusive in such situations.
Many dislike the film as they feel that it doesn’t definitively side with the victim and assert Hank’s guilt. I don’t think that’s the case. After the Hunt makes it abundantly clear what an abhorrent man Hank is, and Garfield’s pitch-perfect performance highlights how the man delights in crossing boundaries. There is no doubt that he crossed the line with Maggie. The film’s lack of sympathy for Maggie is a reflection of society’s response to similar situations: the rage from the perpetrator on how he was wronged, the indifference of the powers that be, women unable to sympathize as they dealt with their own pain differently.
It all feels very messy, especially when we want straightforward justice and punishment. But it’s meant to be discomforting, from the Woody Allen font in the opening credits to the off-kilter jazz in the soundscape. We sit in the irony that these character discuss morality and ethics in their professional lives but see no space for it in their personal spaces. But that is the hypocrisy of human nature.
REVIEW SCORE: 4/5
