baileykerr

Ricky Baker is a thirteen year-old delinquent of the New Zealand foster care system. He is under the delusion that he is a thick-skinned gangster, constantly spouting "I didn't choose the skuxx life, the skuxx life chose me". He is not too much of a delinquent that he is unlikable but he doesn't have a heart of gold either. He is not the brightest bulb in the lamp but picks up on necessary lessons quickly if the right people are around to teach him. He is wildly obese, clueless as to how to survive in the wilderness, and he even commits destruction of property in an attempt to convince the foster care system that he is dead (he never had a chance of being successful with that last one). Ricky Baker could have easily been written as an obnoxious dead-weight of a kid-character. What makes the Hunt for the Wilderpeople so fun to watch is that he is funny and as much as his past hurts him, he doesn't spend his time moping about it. What makes the film even more fun to watch is his partnership with the rugged, primeval Hec played by Sam Neill (finally a role where he does not wear that obvious smile silently screaming "Can you tell I'm the villain of this picture?").

Now onto the story. Ricky has been placed in a home with new foster parents, Bella and Hector or "Hec" for short. The two connect with the primitive way of living, hunting down boars with only knives, containing essential skills for surviving in the forest (or "bush" as the New Zealanders call it) before possessing skills for housekeeping and such. Bella is excited to have Ricky stay with them and shows it often with motherly affection while Hec is, of course, not so keen to the arrangements. He is closed off and the more grizzled of the couple.

Early on in the film, Bella unfortunately passes away, causing the foster care system to determine that Ricky must be placed in a new home. Hec is not pushing Ricky out the door but he has thrown it open to indicate that Ricky should pass through it at some point. Ricky does not want to go back into the system. What is his best course of action then? Leaving a note claiming that he has burned himself to death in the property barn, leaving a drastically unconvincing dummy of himself in the barn, burning the entire barn down instead of only the dummy as he intended, then running away in the bush with few supplies and even less knowledge on how to ration. Of course. I'm surprised I didn't think of that first.

Ricky's scheme to run away causes Hec to come get him, which causes Hec to break his ankle, which causes the two to be stuck in the bush for a few weeks, which causes the foster care people to begin a search under the accusation that Hec has kidnapped the boy, and the story spirals from there. Throughout the film, I kept thinking to myself that if this were to happen in real life, chances are quite strong the main characters would not survive as long as they do. But I found myself smiling, laughing, and interested in their welfare. Why? Because the movie gives a shrug and casually prefaces "I know this is out there. But I'm here to tell a good joke or two. Not to please the public". And surprisingly through that attitude, it pleases a majority of the public.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople is exceptional at recognizing one essential element of comedy; putting interesting characters into a funny situation and watching how they specifically handle it. One small but well choreographed scene finds Hec and Ricky running away from men who want to hand them over to the police. They manage to get back into the forest, then decide that the only thing to do to keep them both out of the government system is to survive in the bush. They begin to run away. After two steps of running, Hec's bad ankle and Ricky's obesity cause them both to come to a grinding halt, panting like they just sprinted for one hundred meters. After a few seconds of panting, they agree that a "fast walk" would be equally effective then begin their journey again.

While I am not sure this film deserves its 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I definitely enjoyed myself. It had elements of Wes Anderson in there, it stayed only as long as it needed to, and it followed silly yet grounded characters who I wanted to see achieve happy endings in a great story. Suspension of disbelief, thy name is Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

For more reviews like this, please see my blog at the following link: http://cinemasmarts.blogspot.com/