Writer-director Richard Shepard applies his provocative, black-comic style to the story of Simon Hunt (Richard Gere), a veteran television war reporter who dropped off the map after an on-air breakdown. His former cameraman (Terrence Howard) stumbles across him in Sarajevo five years later, where Hunt has concocted a wild scheme to kidnap a wanted war criminal.
The Hunting Party plays like the gonzo journalism version of Hotel Rwanda, with genocide and jokes sharing equal screen time. It works better than it should, mainly because Gere and Howard emphasize the grief and despair that is the fount of their characters’ black humor.
