THE HUNTER (M) has Willem Dafoe despatched to Tasmania to track the Tasmanian Tiger for a mysterious biotech company. The last thylacine has been rumoured to be roaming the rugged and remote Tasmanian wilderness and so a hunt for the mythical by the unethical is initiated.

Dafoe’s hunter is an enigmatic, detached professional whose persona and façade are whittled away by his encounter with two children who live in the tumbledown where he is billeted – a base camp from which to embark on his trapping bivouacs. The kids’ mother is mourning the disappearance of her partner and has become moribund.

The hunter’s endeavours to regenerate the house with electrical power simultaneously brings rejuvenation to the maudlin mother and a mutual, if muted, attraction is activated. Mollifying his mixed emotions with the rigors of his mission, the hunter is, nevertheless, plunged into the role of protector when local loggers threaten the green leaning lady and her brood. He is also targeted as a tree hugger and comes into conflict with a rather intriguing and ambiguous resident, Jack Mindey, who has an undeclared passion for the mother.

As the plot progresses, the hunter becomes the hunted, the predator the prey, the trapper trapped. Performances are all first rate with Frances O’Connor luminous as the mother, Lucy, and Morgan Davies and Finn Woodlock as her children. Sam Neill as Jack Mindey is wonderful as always.

Of-course, the characters are almost dwarfed by the brooding landscape and atmosphere of the Tasmanian wilderness, absolutely breathtaking in its wild beauty and superbly captured by cinematographer Robert Humphreys.

A fascinating and assured feature film debut from director Daniel Nettheim, THE HUNTER deserves to snare a fair share of the local box-office.

© Richard Cotter

29th September, 2011