The French thriller Hunting with Tigers, which just dropped on Prime Video, is an unnecessarily confusing movie. It has a convoluted plot for no valid reason whatsoever. It doesn’t qualify as a gritty crime drama that could bring award glory, and it also lacks in terms of pulpiness. The only thing going in the movie’s favor is perhaps the initial ambiguity around the de facto lead character, Malik. Once that wears off, it is a painful watch that tries so hard to be simultaneously intense and entertaining but succeeds at neither. However, if you have watched the movie and are confused about Hunting with Tigers’ ending, then that is going to get sorted out for you in this article.
Spoilers Ahead
What is the movie about?
When his stepfather Serge Lemy gets arrested for a robbery and murder, Malik returns to Paris from Spain. I’m quite fond of a movie dropping you in the middle of a narrative instead of setting things up, but Hunting with Tigers does that rather poorly. There’s also this uncertainty about Malik’s motive, and you don’t really get what his deal is. That’s obviously bad writing, where one moment you find him carrying a sandwich for Sarge at the court and then you see clubbing with a friend till the wee hours. He also happens to meet this young girl, Estelle, and they sort of hit it off. The real story kicks off when Cherif Zhaoui’s defense lawyer, Iris, contacts Malik and comes up with an offer. Cherif is the main accused in the robbery, even though he was not present at the spot when it happened. The police have picked him up due to his reputation and close association with the other robbers. It’s a no-brainer that these guys are big fish of the Paris underworld that are wanted by the law. Anyway, the offer stands as thus: Malik has to create a team of experts who would perform a heist first, then break Cherif and Serge out of prison. In return, he and his colleagues will get to keep most of the heist money.
Does Malik accept the offer?
That should not even be a question, as this story cannot move ahead without Malik accepting the offer, not that it’s one that makes much sense. At least one of the characters, Ange, even mentions that they can just run away with the heist money without even freeing Cherif. However, these characters have honor, and most importantly, Cherif is a big deal in their line of work. Upon Iris’s suggestion (which is coming from Cherif himself), Malik meets this man, Avi, who will help him form the four-man team. Avi is considerably more experienced, older, and smarter than Malik. The moment he enters the scene, Malik’s aura is gone; I’m not sure if that was a conscious decision on the movie’s part or not.
Anyway, through Avi, Malik meets the two other members: Ange, who’s not quite happy with Malik being a part of the plan, and sofa salesman Azeddine. The latter, of course, is an expert who has gone through a change of career. Malik has his own reason for doing this as well. Years ago, Sergey put his neck on the line for him and took out some really bad guys who harmed Malik. Serge loved his stepson so much that he didn’t even mind going to prison for seventeen years. Although we don’t see any of the father-son bonding on screen because both the writing and acting are quite bad here, Malik believes that he owes Serge for what he did for him. He is the only one who’s in it for pride and not money, which, I guess, makes him the hero of the story. There’s not much to be said about the heist, as it is like any other movie heist that we have seen tons of times. But like I said, it is very complicated just for the sake of it. The team manages to pull it off quite convincingly. That’s only half the job done though, as they still need to free Cherif and Serge.
Is Malik Able To Free Serge?
Hunting with Tigers’ ending would have actually worked had the movie bothered to develop its characters better. To feel for a character and root for them, you need to get invested, which doesn’t happen here. To be very frank, I didn’t even care about the plot, as I was just waiting for the movie to end. It is both hilarious and baffling that this movie randomly takes a whole ten to fifteen minutes of plot just to explain the title. It is nothing but Ange, Avi, and Malik bonding as brothers; Avi and Ange are putting some effort into making Malik really tough by forcing him to do tasks like swimming in icy cold water and doing dishes in the middle of the night. Sure, even the people who rob banks and things like that eat and sleep, but do we really need to witness that? Especially given we don’t care about any of these people.
Unlike the heist, which went totally smooth, the other part of the job doesn’t go that easy. One of the other accused smells that Cherif is up to something, and he also wants in, threatening to alert the police otherwise. That gets sorted as Ange suggests that Cherif promise the guy he’ll fulfill his wish, only to dump him when the time comes. The other important thing here is to get the weapons inside the courthouse. But thanks to Iris breaking her ankle—obviously part of the plan—that also happens in no time. The trouble begins after Malik, Ange, and Avi barge inside the courthouse, hold the police at gunpoint, and then free Cherif and Serge. As they make their exit, the police come after them, and Serge gets shot to death. Malik, Cherif, and the rest do manage to escape, though. Cherif is smuggled out of the country, and then Malik is also drugged and knocked out. Upon waking up, he finds himself in bed beside Estelle. That’s Iris’ doing, so that Malik has no problem getting away with a valid alibi. There’s not much logic behind Estelle being interested in Malik other than the very cliched women who are into mysterious/bad boys who are usually good in bed. Also, Malik is the hero in the movie who gets the girl in the end. Hunting with Tigers ends with Malik, Estelle, Ange, and Avi chilling on the beach. We are only thankful because we don’t have to tolerate them anymore.
