Is there a more underappreciated American actor than Willem Dafoe? The 56-year-old Wisconsin native has been in more than 75 movies since his breakthrough roles in To Live and Die in LA and Platoon. Twenty-five years later he’s still making intriguing, wide-ranging choices — from an emotionally taxing ball-buster like Lars von Trier’s Antichrist to frothy adventures like Disney’s John Carter. Now comes The Hunter, Australian director Daniel Nettheim’s slow-burning look at a mercenary (Dafoe) who is sent into the Tasmanian wilderness to track down a rare tiger. Dafoe’s loner is as ambiguous as the shadowy corporation that has hired him in an effort to extract the tiger’s valuable genetic material — an ambiguity Nettheim uses to build tension straight through The Hunter’s unexpectedly moving finale. Rated R. Grade: B. Cincinnati World Cinema screens The Hunter 7 p.m. April 18-19 at The Carnegie Arts Center in Covington. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at door. For more information, call 859-957-FILM or visit thecarnegie.com.
THE HUNTER screens April 18-19 at The Carnegie Arts Center in Covington. Buy tickets, check out show times and get venue details here.