By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Anne Louise Hassing | Annika Wedderkopp | Lasse Fogelstrøm | Mads Mikkelsen | Susse Wold | Thomas Bo Larsen
Original language title: Jagten
Country: denmark, sweden
Year: 2013
Running time: 115
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106476/reference
Bruce says: “Mads Mikkelsen won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 for his portrayal of Lucas, a man falsely accused of child molestation. Mikkelsen’s performance is a textbook case in underplaying a role to achieve maximum impact. There are so many opportunities to overact in this melodrama and Mikkelsen ignores them all.
“The great success of THE HUNT starts with an outstanding script by director Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm. What begins as an isolated, sketchily reported incident mushrooms into a community crisis. Thanks to the great screenplay, it all seems to make perfect sense. The lengthy exposition pays off by making the film more suspenseful and meaningful.
“Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen)is separated from his wife and son Marcus (Lasse Fogelstrom). Unemployed for a period of time, he has taken a job as a kindergarten teacher. One of the kids in his charge is Klara (Annika Wedderkopp), the daughter of Lucas’ friends Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen) and Agnes (Anne Louise Hassing). Klara seeks out Lucas for adult support; Klara is steeped in a confusion that stems from her household discord, the constant bickering of her parents and the abusive treatment from her teenage brother Torsten (Sebastian Bull Sarning) and his friends. They show her pictures of prostitutes drooling over men with full erections. In a frenzied moment when Lucas is roughhousing with the boys in her class, Klara jumps into the fray and places a kiss firmly on Lucas’ lips. Lucas pulls her aside and tells her that she shouldn’t kiss anyone but her parents. Klara, rebuked, tells Grethe (Susse Wold), the headmistress of the school that Lucas has displayed his penis at school.
“Echoing shades of THE CHILDREN’S HOUR and ATONEMENT, THE HUNT continues the dialogue of how adults rush to judgment in believing statements made by children over any explanations offered by the adults involved in the accusations. Bit by bit Lucas’ entire support system crumbles as a result of Grethe’s spreading the rumors of molestation. Soon the entire community turns against Lucas. His solid foundation with Marcus and Theo is what saves him in the end. The film ends on several chilling notes, a reminder of the fine line that exists between fact and fiction and that evil is much more difficult to eradicate than good. The film is not Mikkelsen’s alone; the ensemble cast is nothing short of brilliant. 5 cats
“(THE HUNT screened at the 2013 Miami Film Festival.)”
Chris says: “Thomas Vinterberg’s (THE CELEBRATION) latest is primarily a showcase for great Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Familiar to international audiences mostly as a villain (CASINO ROYALE, his title role in the TV reboot of ‘Hannibal’), he’s the unambiguous protagonist here, albeit one subjected to the kind of hell you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemies. He plays a recently divorced, small town Kindergarten teacher who is adored and respected by his students, their parents, his hunting buddies—practically everyone except his ex-wife. Then, one of his five-year-old female students tells one of his colleagues the worst possible lie imaginable about him and everything regarding his reputation escalates to shit at an alarming pace.
“Slight suspension of disbelief is required for THE HUNT to work, at least initially. Mikkelsen’s colleague, for example, is clearly stupid (or just utterly naive) and the town’s collective notion that they have to always believe the word of a child over an adult is a little far-fetched. And yet, it’s relatively a small hurdle to get over as the community’s hatred of Mikkelsen evolves, solidifies and becomes a frighteningly real force of nature. The greatness in Mikkelsen’s work here is not that it’s tour-de-force all the way, but in how it gradually evolves from the subtle ease of being one of the crowd to swiftly finding one’s self not only apart from the crowd, but an unforgivable pariah. By the time he suffers a complete breakdown in a Christmas church service, you feel the visceral and psychological transformation Mikkelsen’s character has gone through, leaving him a shell of a man. However, it’s not as chilling as the film’s astonishing coda, which lingers like the sound of a lone gunshot and brilliantly turns the film’s too-pat denouement on its head. 4.5 cats
“(This film screened at the 2013 Independent Film Festival of Boston)”
Diane says: “Thanks to Bruce and Chris for their earlier reviews of THE HUNT, Thomas Vinterberg’s film about a kindergarten teacher accused of sexual abuse. Mads Mikkelsen, in the leading role, will get a nom from me. (I like him so much, I’d probably nom him for the upcoming KUNG FU PANDA 3.) The movie has a strong sense both of hidden evil and encroaching isolation, reminding me of THE WHITE RIBBON and TAKE SHELTER. (I recommend a novel with a similar premise: A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton.) 4 cats
“BTW, New Englanders, I saw this at Portsmouth’s Music Hall, my first time in that venue. Loved it, and there happened to be a discussion scheduled after the movie–even better.”