Year of Release: 2016
Director: Taika Waititi
Screenplay: Taika Waititi, based on the novel Wild Pork and Watercress by Barry Crump
Starring: Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby, Rima Te Wiata, Rachel House
Running Time: 101 minutes
Genre: Adventure, comedy, drama
Troubled teenager Ricky Baker (Dennison) is constantly in and out of foster homes. As a last ditch attempt, child services assign him to a couple who own a remote farm. After a difficult start, Ricky eventually bonds with his new foster mother Bella (Wiata) but not so much with her cantankerous frontiersman husband Hec (Neill). When Bella drops dead of natural causes, a grieving Ricky plunges into the bush to avoid being taken by child services. Hec follows him, and the two embark on a life in the wilderness, as the target of a nationwide manhunt.
As with the best of writer-director Taika Waititi's work this blends darkness and tragedy with warmth, hope and compassion along with laugh out loud comedy. This film has added wilderness adventure. It does take it's time to get going, but the constant quirky comedy of Waititi's world means that it never gets dull. Julian Dennison is great as the streetwise but naive teen at the heart of the film, and there is real chemistry between him and Sam Neill's grizzled outdoorsman, who hides real heart and compassion deep down beneath a prickly, abrasive exterior. Rachel House is hilarious as the child welfare officer who obsessively pursues Ricky, and compares herself to The Terminator. Taika Waititi has a small role as the minister who conducts Bella's funeral service. By turns funny, exciting and heartbreaking this film also has a point about those who don't fit into the world. Ricky and Hec don't really have a place in the modern world, they just want to live on their own terms, but while Ricky can find a place for himself, it is harder for Hec, given his age and circumstances. The two save each other in their own ways.
Julian Dennison and Sam Neill in Hunt for the Wilderpeople
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