Let me start with the pros as there are not much: 1- The cinematography is really beautiful, probably one of the best in the last decade of Turkish cinema 2- the direction is also very aptly handled with a particular eye for the details 3- the main concept is also intriguing, this is not your typical 'who did it' crime thriller with lots of red herrings thrown at you that leads to a twist at the end, instead this flick aspires to be a character study with some obvious influence from 'se7en' and 'zodiac'. But unfortunately the illogical script and the 'refined' dialogues makes this an utter failure. It was like watching the screenplay being recited, something which becomes unbearable after half an hour or something. The dialogues do not sound authentic at all, they are more like a translation from English. Just one example will suffice: The veteran homicide detective answers a call by the medical examiner saying: 'give me some good news' in Turkish, a phrase that I have never heard a Turk utter, ever. There are so many plot holes and unrealistic scenes (like small-time drug dealers with semi-automatic weapons shooting randomly at police... come on)but what is more frustrating is the lack of character development for a movie that presents itself as a character study rather than a mere thriller.We never really understand why f.e. our main character 'hunter' is indeed called hunter. It is said many times that he is a legend in the homicide department because; well, he hunts the killers and always catches them. But in this case he really never does anything. He spots a car that they are looking for from 10 meters and recognizes a 500000 $ worth shotgun after recently seeing it and in the remaining time wanders aimlessly and ask questions that lead to nowhere. The writing is not different for his partner 'deli' either. He actually shows no interest in the case throughout the whole movie, even being scolded by his boss, the 'hunter', for his lack of interest. But out of the blue this case-the very same case he never seems to take serious- becomes to be the last straw in his demise. So there is no point in assessing the cast because no one could really pull of some genuine acting given such pretentious dialogues and ludicrous screenplay. And the final scene where all the plot is dictated by monologues; well let me just say that: it is an insult to the intelligence of the viewers.
Review of Hunting Season
