A review of Hunt for the Wilderpeople (in which I casually dismiss several actors’ performances then worry about what would happen if they ever actually read it and then I met them)
Hunt for Wilderpeople is the highest grossing film New Zealand-made film ever, which sounds mightily impressive until you try to think of any others. Still, it’s also been lauded left, right and centre - but I have to admit its charms were rather lost on me.
Ricky, a teenage tearaway with a heart of gold, is put into the care of saintly foster mum Bella on a remote country farm. Her husband Hec (Sam Neill) is a grizzled old coot who, in the course of time, also turns out to have a heart of gold. But for the time being Hec is unwelcoming, hostile even, because - well, because the plot wouldn’t work otherwise.
When Bella (big heart of gold) meets a sudden demise the authorities deem Hec - who hates Ricky and is, it transpires, a convicted killer - an unsuitable guardian. Now we all know it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t for children’s social services, but you would have thought this an eminently sensible decision. Whatever. The odd couple take to the bush and spend the next six months on the lam, bonding.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a caper of the old fashioned sort; likable-ish, knockabout stuff. The comedy is very broad, cartoonish even. The bad guys - hunters, cops and, yes, social workers - are cut-outs, blundering and venal. There’s no sense of danger, or genuine drama, or feeling, here. Nor does the New Zealand scenery truly come alive, as it could have done.
A drily funny turn from director Taika Waititi as a priest is the best thing here, while Rhys Darby raises a smile or two hamming it up as a survivalist. The appeal of Julian Dennison as Ricky, meanwhile, has been overstated. Sam Neill phones it in.
Played straighter it might have been a gem. As it is it’s hard to actively dislike Hunt for the Wilderpeople, but it’s awfully thin fare. And don’t be fooled: strip away the swearing and the accusations of paedophilia and this is essentially a kids’ film. If you ask me they should dropped the language and aimed it squarely at the family market, but they didn’t and it’s the highest grossing New Zealand-made film ever, so what do I know?
