After the Hunt is a 2025 American psychological thriller, directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Nora Garrett. It had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in August, was shown at the BFI London Film Festival and was released in the UK last Friday, 17 October.

Yale University philosophy professor Alma Imhoff (Julia Roberts) is put in a difficult position when her apparently brilliant student, Maggie Resnick (Ayo Edebiri), claims that she was sexually assaulted by one of Alma’s peers, Hank Gibson (Andrew Garfield). So it is a ‘her word against his’ campus drama, in the manner of David Mamet’s Oleanna which so wowed theatre (and film) audiences back in the 1990s. And of course, in the post #metoo era, this has the potential to be a real hot potato.

Now let’s add that Alma and Hank had a bit if a thing back-in-the-day; and that they are now in a battle over who will gain tenure in the philosophy department; and that Maggie is a lesbian who has a crush on Alma; and that Maggie is actually not quite so brilliant – she probably plagiarised her dissertation; and that Maggie is the daughter of a major donor to the University; and that Alma has some significant stomach complaint; and that Maggie is black, and is having a relationship with someone non-binary.

If anyone can think of a potential issue that is missing from the above, it is probably in the film, but I just missed it from my list. Yes, this is a totally unfocused, confusing mess. Whilst Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield do their best with the material they have, there is only so much a good actor can do for a bum script.

And the real issue is that the characters, as written, are all incredibly difficult to like. I just would not want to spend any time with any of them. Two hours into this 139-minute film, I quite honestly could not have cared any less about whether Alma had stage IV colon cancer or irritable bowel syndrome! And nor did I care whether Hank raped Maggie or whether Maggie lied. And that is terrible – how can a film about such a personal and devastating act leave the viewer so completely cold.

I strongly recommend that you do not bother with this mess of a film – far from a hot potato, it turns out to be warmed-over Cadbury’s Smash (if you don’t get the reference, google it)! It is definitely not worth either your time or your money.

And incidentally, if Andrew Garfield’s table manners are anything like his character’s, then if he invites you out for a curry, just say no!