The Hunting Party moves fast, but could use some work

Writer/director Richard Shepard struck modest gold a few years back with The Matador, a sly, just this side of broad comedy that took one of cinema’s moldiest tropes (an aging hitman, for chrissakes) and turned it into something kinda undemandingly wonderful. The Hunting Party, Shepard’s ambitious serio-satirical follow-up about predatory war journalists, has a few moments of Hunter Thompsonish comic inspiration, but its vibe feels more untethered by the minute.

Loosely based on a 2000 Esquire article by Scott Anderson, Shephard’s script follows three newsmen—washed up correspondent (Richard Gere), devoted cameraman (Terrence Howard), and novice producer (Jesse Eisenberg)—as they travel through the bombed out Bosnian countryside in search of an interview with an elusive Serb warlord known as The Fox. The closer they get to their destination, the muddier their already questionable moral stance becomes.

To his credit, Shepard certainly keeps things zipping along, incorporating some striking location shooting, a number of supporting performances, and a few exchanges of Catch-22 worthy doublespeak (the more the three deny being part of a CIA kill squad in search of The Fox’s $5 million bounty, the more everyone in the vicinity believes it) at a ferocious clip. As it gets closer to its destination, though, the wobbliness of the tone becomes increasingly trying, with the more comedic moments coexisting uneasily with scenes of ripped-from-the headlines carnage. Ultimately, the film’s ramblingly indulgent tendencies begin to chafe, particularly in the cases of Gere and Howard, two fine actors with a tendency to preen when left unchecked. The end result is a movie with a number of decent parts (James Brolin’s cameo as a dunderheaded anchorman is pretty priceless), which never really gel into anything substantive. As the opening caption states, “Only the most ridiculous parts are true.” It’s the other stuff that needs some work.

THE HUNTING PARTY DIR. RICHARD SHEPARD | RATED R | AT THEATERS EVERYWHERE