There's a brief moment in the high-toned academic potboiler After the Hunt when Julia Roberts lets out her signature laugh — that glorious, full-throated cackle that harks back at least to Pretty Woman . It's wonderful to hear it again, especially for those of us who've longed to see more of Roberts on-screen lately.

After the Hunt , from the Italian director Luca Guadagnino , isn't a great movie, but Roberts is undeniably great in it; this is her most commanding work since her Oscar-winning turn in Erin Brockovich 25 years ago. Here, though, Roberts is no crusader for justice; she's a woman defined by emotional guardedness and moral ambivalence. She plays Alma Imhoff, a philosophy professor at Yale.

Alma is brilliant, respected and more than a little aloof, but she does have

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