| Worth seeing: | as a thought-provoking drama that makes good use of a strong cast but tries to squeeze too much in and ends up feeling contrived and incoherenttouches on a range of issues - |
| Director: | Luca Guadagnino |
| Featuring: | Julia Roberts, Michael Stuhlbarg, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, David Leiber, Lio Mehiel |
| Length: | 139 minutes |
| Certificate: | 15 |
| Country: | US |
| Released: | 17th October 2025 |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Alma (Julia Roberts) is a respected senior Philosophy professor at Yale University, who has a flirtatious friendship with her younger colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield).
Alma is married to a rather stuffy, but devoted psychotherapist, Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg), and Hank suspects that one of her students, the precocious Maggie (Ayo Edibiri) might have a crush on her.
One night, hours after Maggie leaves a party at Alma’s with Hank, she returns – in tears – with a shocking revelation.
Loyalties are tested as allegations fly – jobs, friendships, marriages and reputations are on the line.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
Centring on a group of philosophers, it’s no surprise that Luca Guadagnino’s drama is heavy on precocious dialogue, as the professors and students pontificate on the nature of life in modern America – and women’s role in modern-day society is very much a speciality of Alma and her charge.
In a drama that explores themes including deception, ambition, revenge, privilege, loyalty, betrayal, infidelity and abuse of power, there is much to exercise your brain – from the wider narrative to the granular levels of the conversations.
But while some plot points feel like they’re a bit on the nose, others are so oblique as to feel completely out of place.
One of the weaknesses of the narrative is that the character who has the most to lose is somewhat side-lined, to allow the film to centre on Julia Roberts – but her jeopardy is less significant, unnecessarily self-induced and easier to fight. Rather than following the plight of someone who may – or may not – have been wrongly accused, we largely follow someone else, who is observing the scandal from a different perspective.
It almost feels like the drama would have been stronger had it centred on another character entirely – although that was better done in the far superior The Hunt; although the title suggests that this film is less interested in “the hunt” than the consequences.
In trying to make the central character more enigmatic, we have secrets hidden in bathroom cabinets and a mysterious illnesses, which are given disproportionate relevance.
Ultimately, this is a thought-provoking drama that explores some interesting ideas – but it’s perhaps trying to do too much, making it a little unfocussed, with some of the twists feeling contrived and some of the conclusions feeling correspondingly unsatisfying or even incoherent.