NEW Dafoe/o'connor/neill - Hunter (Blu-ray)

This is from the novel by Julia Leigh and tells the story of Martin Davis played by the brilliantly talented Willem ‘I use Just for Men’ Dafoe who has been in more great films than you can shake two sticks at. Martin is an assassin who sort of always gets his man, like The Mounties but on the wrong side of the law. He is hired by an unscrupulous bio tech firm called Red leaf. They have bought into sightings of the assumed extinct Tasmanian Tiger and want samples of its DNA to synthesise for their own money grubbing ends.

Martin arrives in the remote area of Tasmania posing as a researcher from a University, where he is supposed to lodge with Lucy (Francis O’Connor – ‘Bedazzled’ and ‘A-I’). She is high on medication and her two young children, Sass and Bike are almost fending for themselves, with the ambiguous ‘help’ of local ranger, Jack played by the always brilliant Sam Neill. Martin soon realises that Lucy’s husband has been missing on the mountain for some time yet they are still holding out a forlorn hope that he will return, and little Bike seems to have lost the will to speak, and expresses himself through drawings. Pretty soon Martin realises that he may not have been told the whole picture and the locals are positively hostile to all ‘foreigners’ causing inevitable ructions.

The closer Martin gets to his elusive quarry the closer he gets to nature and to the family he is increasingly caring for. The problem is Red Leaf want delivery at any price and so things are going to come to a head.

This is an excellent film, both moving and gritty where it needs to be, there are scenes of animal butchery which I know can be upsetting for some. The country side is remarkably beautiful and the issues around conservation are left low key enough to be part of the fabric of the tale rather than the raison d’être. All of the actors are superb and there is a poetry to the development of the story which unfolds at just the right pace to keep you hooked whilst allowing time for reflection too.

The whole Tasmanian Tiger thing I have always found interesting, some American put up a huge reward for a live one, but stopped offering it a while back, the few who were placed in zoos never produced offspring and so they are believed to be extinct, but the coelacanth was believed to be extinct too but rare specimens have turned up, so there is always hope. This is a film for those that like movies to make them think and get a bit dewy eyed at the same time, I absolutely loved it and can only recommend.