The Hunted Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)March 17th, 2003
THE HUNTED
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Special Operations Sergeant Aaron Hallam (Benicio del Toro, "Traffic") is awarded the Silver Star for his bravery in Kosovo, but the horror that enveloped him there haunts him and affects his judgement on a subsequent mission. After slaying four sweepers sent to capture the renegade assassin, FBI trainer L.T. Bonham (Tommy Lee Jones, "Men In Black II") is called in, his former pupil now "The Hunted."
Screenwriters David and Peter Griffiths ("Collateral Damage") and Art Monterastelli have created an original screenplay that in truth is a remake of "First Blood," the first of the "Rambo" series, with a little of Tommy Lee Jones's character from "The Fugitive" thrown in and some borrowing of "Apocalypse Now's" Colonel Kurtz for del Toro's motivation. Oscar winning actor Jones has led his audience to expect going through old motions, but for del Toro to take on this tired material immediately after winning his statuette is a major disappointment.
Heavily camouflaged Hallam creeps through the hell that is an Albanian village being obliterated by the Serbs. After witnessing the mass slaughter of innocents, he infiltrates the Mosque being used as command post and efficiently eviscerates the Serbian Sergeant in charge. L.T. is introduced freeing a white wolf from a trap near his remote wilderness home in snowy British Columbia. In verdant, mossy woods hundreds of miles south in Oregon, two 'hunters' with high-precision scope rifles, track Hallam, who leads them into traps of his own. L.T. is, reluctantly of course, called in to find the man he trained. Abbie Durrell (Connie Nielson, "One Hour Photo") is the otherwise competent Portland policewoman who's around to give L.T. more obstacles to overcome.
The two succeed in tracking down Hallam, who trained though he is leaves lots of sloppy signs behind and returns to the home of his last girlfriend (Leslie Stefanson, "The General's Daughter"), the first place anyone would look. In "The Fugitive" fashion, he escapes his FBI prison transport to lead L.T. throughout Portland and back into the woods where he sets a series of highly complex traps and forges a knife in what appears to be a couple of hours.
Compounding the silly lapses in logic is the filmmakers' waffling on Hallam's state of mind. When FBI agent Van Zandt (Ron Canada, "Lone Star") presents the evidence of Hallam's field failure, he rather believably counters with his version of events. In addition to the bookending white wolf mythology, L.T. is burdened with biblical references to Abraham sacrificing his son. A more interesting message about respecting the food chain beneath one sounds good but doesn't really make sense within the film's context.
One gets the sense that director William Friedkin ("Rules of Engagement") may have had a more lucid film that was edited into a stock actioner. The production itself cannot be faulted, with cinematographer Caleb Deschanel contrasting the moist mossiness of the Pacific Northwest, the cool grayness of Portland and the pure whites of Canadian winter. Intimate interiors closely contain characters more at east in the great outdoors. Images are nicely cut together by Augie Hess ("Rules of Engagement") particularly a segue from a waterfall into a snow shower. Fight choreography seems slowed down to allow us to see the moves that were taught in a flashback. An interesting move, where Hallam cuts himself in order to blind L.T. with blood, is the only unique element of the confrontations.
Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro must be given credit for the physical demands of their roles (del Toro broke his ankle during filming), but neither stretches their acting chops. Nielson is one of those women who can believably portray a cop without dulling down her beauty. Stefanson is cast adrift with no background to her character's short yet seemingly serious relationship to Hallam and oddly costumed (Gloria Gresham, "Bandits") like a buttoned-up schoolmarm. Canada injects too much villainy into his role.
Del Toro's next project is the anticipated "21 Grams" from "Amores Perros" director Alejandro González Iñárritu, which gives hope that "The Hunted" is but a blip on the radar and not the beginning of an Oscar-cursed career downslide.
C
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