-via IMDb.com
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a beautiful, funny, heartbreaking movie. That's all you really need to know. Okay, it's directed by Taiki Waititi and stars Julian Dennison as Ricky, a young kid who has spent his life being bounced from foster home to foster home and is finally brought to the home of Hec and his wife. Hec is played by Sam Neill. When his wife passes away, Ricky, feeling her loss acutely, runs away with her ashes. Hec, not a fan of the boy but feeling responsible for him, sets out after him to bring him home to return to the child welfare system.
A nationwide manhunt launches as the social workers and police think Hec is kidnapping the boy. This is New Zealand so the film wasn't seen a lot in the rest of the world which is unfortunate.
There is a balancing of zany comedy and drama that is just amazing. I don't know what else to say. I teared up a few times and laughed out loud quite a few times too. The story just flows and it ends in a way that left me content.
I liked it a lot.
