Originally published August 4, 2016 on FrontRowCentral.com
We’ve reached that point in the summer where blockbuster fatigue has taken hold in a big bad way. Even something as breezy and joyful as the new Star Trek has all but evaporated in this oppressive late-summer heatwave. (In short, welcome to August.) It’s time for a film to shake things up and remind us how much fun we can have with little more than two oddball characters running around in the woods. Enter Hunt for the Wilderpeople, writer/director Taika Waititi’s follow up to his 2014 vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows. Following a more conventional narrative, Wilderpeople delivers a surprisingly heartwarming story woven with Waititi’s out-of-left-field sense of humor.
Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) is a troubled inner-city orphan who fancies himself a gangster. As we first meet Ricky, he’s been adopted by foster parents Bella (Rima Ti Wiata) and Hector (Sam Neill), farmers living way out in the New Zealand bush. Bella takes to the boy right away, while Hec wants nothing to do with him. He doesn’t have anything against Ricky personally; Hec would simply prefer it if the whole world left him alone. When circumstances force Ricky back into state custody, he flees into the wilderness with his dog Tupac. It’s not long before Hec catches up to Ricky, and the pair soon find themselves on the run from the law, as well as a relentless social worker named Paula (Rachel House).
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is very much a comedy of errors, as the entire plot is driven by Ricky’s constant stream of fuck-ups and misunderstandings. Overweight, aggressive and with only a fleeting sense of what being a gangster is all about, Ricky doesn’t fit in among the hillfolk. Then again, he’s never exactly fit in in the city, either. Ricky is just Ricky, and the very first thing this film asks us to do is accept him on his own terms. Julian Dennison has such great comic timing and presence that Ricky could have carried Wilderpeople all on his own, even without a seasoned vet like Sam Neill at his side.
Neill nevertheless plays Hec as a good sport, begrudgingly playing along with Ricky’s gangster attitude, even though he clearly cannot stand it. In certain scenes, we get the sense that he enjoys the kid’s company more than he lets on. In fact, between the two, Hec gets the bulk of the film’s emotional material. Dennison plays Ricky’s issues right on the surface, but Neill is forced to play things much closer to the vest. Hec is a deeply wounded character even before the start of the film, and the adventure he sets out on with Ricky serves as an opportunity for healing. Yup, this is definitely one of those road trip movies where everyone learns a little bit about themselves around a campfire.
But that’s not to say Wilderpeople is a total downer. Quite the opposite. From the moment Ricky runs away from home, the film begins dropping countless gags and film references that keep us locked in on Ricky and his absurd view of the world. Fittingly, it all has the feel of a children’s story, as Waititi’s script breaks the film up into ten distinct chapters. Most of these involve Ricky and Hec encountering other oddballs in the woods, such as a trio of hunters out to collect the reward for their capture, or a camouflaged recluse named Psycho Sam (Rhys Darby). This lends the film a more episodic feel than it maybe should, but it also ensures there is never a dull moment. It’s a wash, more or less.
Visually, Waititi makes liberal use of the kind of sweeping traveling shots made cliche by Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films, to the point where Ricky notes the similarity himself. At the same time, the design of his woodland universe feels ever so slightly influenced by the style of Wes Anderson. Everything looks shaggy, straddling the line between retro-cool and just plain run-down, but the colors pop and Waititi is very precise about where and how he moves his camera. There’s a touch of Moonrise Kingdom’s coursing through Wilderpeople, particularly in scenes where Ricky tries his hardest to appear competent in the woods.
The film tips too far into the realm of the absurd near the end. The titular hunt becomes a literal chase involving police cars, helicopters and, why the hell not, let’s throw in a couple of tanks for the hell of it. Waititi seems to lose sight of his ending, even as he’s barreling towards it. Ricky rages against a machine he doesn’t fully understand, and Hec offers little in the way of guidance. Still, this is one of those cases where the journey becomes more important than the destination. What begins as a begrudging partnership soon morphs into a strange bond between a mismatched uncle and nephew, and it’s one of the most unexpectedly touching comedies of the year.
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