Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

"Hunt for the Wilderpeople" is an NZ production. Not a random choice. The subject in brief: an orphan child (and with a background of a bunch of minor felonies) is given to a new foster family - auntie Bella & uncle Hec, somewhere in the middle of nowhere in New Zealand. So nowhere that the attempt to run away from home is not feasible anymore. And like that, slowly, the boy starts attaching to his new family, especially to his adoptive aunt. The uncle, not the most friendly guy, remains a bit more reluctant to accepting the new family member, but overall things go well. Up to some day when auntie Bella drops dead. Consequently the child care services decide that the boy has to be moved to another family. Which is not really on his liking, resulting in a new attempt of running away "into the wild" (not before trying to fake his own suicide and burning the barn in the process). The boy is followed by uncle Hec, who, however, manages to injure his own foot before bringing the kid home => long camping in the woods. And like that we're getting to a situation where the two are added to a list of "wanted fugitives", apparently sufficient to convince them both that it's probably better to stick to the forest for a while.

If you ever felt "a need to escape" from your everyday life/work/whatever, but not as some vacation, the acute state when you feel you cannot go forward, then that's probably not the good movie for you. Because it might depress you further. On the other hand, it is the movie for you. Because it will show you that it can be done, at least temporarily. And during that time you might find a way for a better return. That's the optimistic view - the realistic view is that "might find a way" is not "will find a way" and besides turning the back to everybody, you might need also to break a leg sometimes... Too much philosophy. It's a fun movie. And as I said it's not a random choice = you can feel the chill, laid back attitude that's present in NZ, which makes the "escape" idea even more real and the movie more enjoyable ;)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5