Mads Mikkelsen
Alexandra Rapaport
Thomas Bo Larsen
Annika Wedderkopp

Tobias Lindholm
Thomas Vinterberg

115 mins.
Drama, Foreign
July 12, 2013

Rated R for sexual content including a graphic image, violence and language. (MPAA)

Lies are insidious things. Once one of them takes hold, it can be virtually impossible to erase the damage that they did and will continue to do. In “The Hunt (Jagten),” the lie is told by a child, and it involves sexual abuse. This is the nuclear bomb of lies.

In short, unembellished scenes, we’re given the reasons why the child tells the lie. Those reasons make sense from the child’s point-of-view: After a man points out to her that her previous behavior was inappropriate, she becomes upset with the man, whom she considers a friend. So, when talking to another adult about that man, she says untrue things about him because she’s upset. This man happens to be the best friend of her father, and he works at her kindergarten school. The other adult is the woman in charge of that kindergarten. Well, the adults (starting with the woman in charge) handle this in all of the incorrect ways that anyone who knows anything about investigating pedophilia would shake their heads at. They essentially put words into Klara’s (the little girl’s) mouth, and then spread them to the other children (through their parents) in the school.

Lucas (the man in question), played expertly by Mads Mikkelsen (who also brilliantly plays Hannibal Lecter in the NBC thriller, “Hannibal”), goes through all of the expected harsh treatment, as a result. (Mikkelsen’s performance doesn’t even seem to be a performance at most times; but when he blows, he does so convincingly. Note his response when he re-enters a grocery store after being violently kicked out or how he confronts his best friend during a Christmas Eve church service after the kindergarteners begin to sing a song.)

The charges against Lucas are eventually dropped after it’s found out that the children’s stories don’t add-up: They claim that Lucas has a basement and provide great detail about that basement, but there’s no basement at all.

The strength of this film lies in its simplistic narrative style. The filmmakers just tell the story; they let it unfold naturally and trust the actors to do their jobs. The actors don’t overplay any of the moments here. For example, the woman in charge of the kindergarten is shown thinking through what Klara has told her. We see her go through a period of hesitation and caution, and then arrive at a place of conviction. This is all done simply by filming the look on her face and the tension in her body scene by scene.

In some ways, this film reminds me of “A Separation,” a 2011 Iranian film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012. But “A Separation” is about misunderstandings; it isn’t as clear about who’s in the right and who’s in the wrong. In any case, this kind of film gets to me. When filmmakers confront the audience with the story of someone who has been obviously wrongfully accused, it disturbs me to no end. This kind of thing scares me in real life, too.

The only problem I have with “The Hunt” is its ending. Unlike the filmmakers of “A Separation,” this film’s creative team decided to show us some events a year after the accusation. This was the only time that I thought that the director was beating me over the head with his message. The message is loud and clear without that ending. This film would’ve been more powerful without that ending, because everything was put in place beforehand without any forced moments. The moment between Lucas and his best friend (the father of Klara) after their encounter in church on Christmas Eve would’ve been the perfect place to stop. I was disappointed with this ending, because it shows a lack of restraint; and restraint was what made all of the events before that ending (the overwhelming majority of the film) so devastating and effective.

I was ready to call this a great film before seeing the end of it. But, even with the ending, it’s very good.

Verdict: Very Good

About: (Source: thehunt)

Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a highly-regarded school teacher, has been forced to start over having overcome a tough divorce. Just as things are starting to go his way, his life is shattered. An untruthful remark throws the small community into a collective state of hysteria. The lie is spreading and Lucas is forced to fight a lonely fight for his life and dignity.