The Hunting Party

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

Like writer/director Richard Shepard's previous film, the amusing The Matador with Pierce Brosnan, his latest, The Hunting Party, proves he's a talent to watch. This is a fast-paced, smart, and exciting black comedy that is a wild trip, a nifty mixture of acerbic wit and suspense that would be totally absurd if its most incredible parts didn't happen to be true. This movie is based on Scott Anderson's first-person article "What I Did on My Summer Vacation," about some journalists who decide to take matters into their own hands and go after the world's most notorious Bosnian war criminal. This film version presents its own somewhat fictionalized account of events, but much of it is still true. Of course, much of it isn't, and its fun, honest directness in pointing out its falsehoods is what makes this a movie worth catching. The real journalists have morphed into composite characters, including a hot-wired Geraldo Rivera–type reporter (Richard Gere) who keeps getting fired but finds a way to come back for more guerrilla-style in-your-face news gathering. His longtime cameraman during the war (Terrence Howard) gets promoted to the network evening news working with their prestigious, if pompous, anchorman (James Brolin). Five years later, while covering the fifth anniversary of the war's end, he runs into the struggling Gere back in Bosnia, and they soon find themselves cooking up a plan to go after the feared terrorist nicknamed "the Fox," a man Gere is convinced he can catch for a "world exclusive." Joining them is a young rookie reporter (Jesse Eisenberg) traveling with Howard who tries to prove he is more than just a network executive's privileged son. All three actors make a great team in this lively mix of popcorn and politics.

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