The Hunting Party

What stands out first about The Hunting Party is the confidence with which Richard Shepard establishes its comedy identity. Rather than relying on premise alone, The Hunting Party asks Richard Gere and Terrence Howard to supply personality from the opening stretch. The premise of The Hunting Party is established with useful clarity: A young journalist, a seasoned cameraman and a discredited war correspondent embark on an unauthorized mission to find the No.1 war criminal in Bosnia. That direct approach lets The Hunting Party use its 1h 41m running time for character, atmosphere and consequence.

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Rather than summarise every event in The Hunting Party, it is enough to note how No places Bosnia under growing pressure. Richard Gere gives that tension a face, which stops The Hunting Party from becoming a mechanical sequence of developments. Richard Shepard uses However to widen the stakes of The Hunting Party without losing sight of the original problem. Where the central character becomes predictable, The Hunting Party recovers interest through the consequences surrounding it.

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A close look at The Hunting Party reveals how comic timing built around character carries information that the dialogue wisely leaves alone. Under the production banner of Intermedia, The Hunting Party treats comic timing built around character as part of its storytelling grammar. Well judged reactions gives The Hunting Party a stronger sense of place within its United States context. The technical departments of The Hunting Party remain coordinated, so polish supports involvement instead of creating distance.

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The thematic thread that gives The Hunting Party weight is embarrassment, status and the gap between confidence and reality. Richard Gere grounds that thread so The Hunting Party never has to choose completely between entertainment and reflection. A recurring focus on Bosnia gives the ideas in The Hunting Party enough dramatic pressure to matter. Under Richard Shepard, The Hunting Party works best when viewers are invited to notice the theme before any character explains it.

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The directorial personality of The Hunting Party comes from Richard Shepard remaining alive in individual scenes and uncertain between them when the premise invites excess. Within The Hunting Party, Richard Shepard repeatedly favours readable choices over attention seeking flourishes. That discipline explains why the cast and craft keep the experience watchable in The Hunting Party rather than appearing only in isolated scenes. Where The Hunting Party becomes less convincing, too many scenes explain effects the actors have already suggested, and the loss of control is noticeable without becoming fatal.

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Performance is the clearest human asset in The Hunting Party, beginning with the committed centre provided by Richard Gere. Terrence Howard keeps The Hunting Party from settling into one emotional register by approaching the material from another angle. The presence of Jesse Eisenberg gives the surrounding world of The Hunting Party additional texture without distracting from the main line. When Richard Shepard holds on a reaction, The Hunting Party communicates more efficiently than another explanatory exchange could manage.

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For comedy fans who respond to personality and timing, The Hunting Party is ultimately an uneven film with enough personality to remain interesting. Its most persuasive combination in The Hunting Party brings Richard Gere together with well judged reactions under the direction of Richard Shepard. The fact that too many scenes explain effects the actors have already suggested prevents The Hunting Party from being entirely seamless. Even with that reservation, The Hunting Party has a clear point of view and enough genuine feeling to justify the journey.