Cast overview: | |||
Willem Dafoe | ... | Martin | |
Frances O'Connor | ... | Lucy | |
Sam Neill | ... | Jack | |
Morgan Davies | ... | Sass (as Morgana Davies) | |
Finn Woodlock | ... | Bike | |
Jacek Koman | ... | Middleman | |
Callan Mulvey | ... | Rival Hunter | |
John Brumpton | ... | Publican | |
Dan Wyllie | ... | Pool Player | |
Sullivan Stapleton | ... | Doug | |
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Jamie Timony | ... | Free |
Dan Spielman | ... | Simon | |
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Maia Thomas | ... | Shakti |
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Marc Watson-Paul | ... | Jarrah |
The independent and lonely hunter Martin David is hired by the powerful biotech company Red Leaf to hunt down the last Tasmanian tiger. Red Leaf is interested in the DNA of the animal and Martin travels to Tasmania alone. He poses as a researcher from a university and lodges in the house of Lucy Armstrong. Martin learns that Lucy's husband has been missing for a long time and he befriends her children, Sass and Bike. When Martin goes to the village, he has a hostile reception from the locals. Along the days, Martin spends his days in the Tasmanian wilderness chasing the Tiger and becomes closer and closer to the Armstrong family. But Red Leaf wants results no matter the costs. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Willem Dafoe plays a mysterious loner hired to find the Tasmanian Tiger, which is considered extinct. The film co-stars two wonderful kids and the Tasmanian back-country, extraordinarily beautiful.
What's great about this movie is that in addition to telling an excellent story, it is beautifully filmed and, as a bonus, sent my wife and me to the Internet to look up Tasmania and the Tasmanian Tiger, which indeed is considered the most recently extinct animal. So we learned something too! As for the story, sure you can carp and say it's too far-fetched, or too sentimental, or has holes in it (what story doesn't). But it hangs together quite well and is not only multi-faceted but refreshingly unpredictable.
And the wonderful Silence. Few actors can work in silence as well as Willem Dafoe. This may be his strongest-ever performance, his expressive face being his best feature. Many scenes are told in silence, or rather with only the sounds of the back-country and the excellent movie score.
Dafoe triumphs in a movie that is, after all, ultimately about his well-drawn character. After all, it is called "The Hunter."