The Hunt film review

Movie Review 4

The Hunt

Mads Mikkelsen, winner of best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival plays the riveting lead role in the film The Hunt. Danish Director, Thomas Vinterberg is well known for being the co-founder of Dogme 95 movement in filmmaking. This genre has created rules for making movie production easier. Vinterberg believes the use of detailed special effects and technology in a film is not as important as the traditional values of story, acting, and theme. In this film, Vinterberg veers away from Dogme 95 filmmaking to tell this invigorating tale of desperation and turmoil.

Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), is a newly divorced, kindhearted, loving and friendly man. His likable personality is soon put to the test when he is accused of sexual abuse by his best friend, Theo’s (Thomas Bo Larsen) daughter Klara (Annika Wedderkopp.) Lucas is a fun and playful kindergarten teacher. He spends some time with Klara taking her to and from school and she develops a childish crush. One day when he is playing with the kids, Klara runs into the room kisses him on the lips and hands him a heart she made. Lucas kindly explains to Klara how what she did was not appropriate. This frustrates Klara and after seeing inappropriate pictures her older brother had shown her the day before, she accuses Lucas of showing her his inappropriate body parts. This causes a frenzy within the school, Lucas is fired and the police is notified.

Everything in Lucas’s life begins to crumble. The entire town discovers the charges against him and refuse him access to stores. He is constantly harassed and looked down on. No one will take time to listen to him but his good friend, Bruun (Lars Ranthe.) His son, Marcus (Lasse Fogelstrom) who was supposed to live with him but not allowed anymore, comes to visit for a few days. After Lucas is arrested Marcus pays a visit to Klara and her family that ends with him fighting and being kicked out. Later on Lucas’s house is vandalized and Fanny, his dog is murdered and left on his doorstep. This causes rage within Lucas and Marcus. After the extreme disapproval of neighbors and school faculty, Vinterberg almost has me believing Lucas might have abused Klara. The film makes the audience focus and concentrate to figure out what the truth really is.

I was fully engrossed in this film for the entire 111 minutes. Mikkelsen played a dignified character up until the very end of the film when he reaches his breaking point. Once Theo sees how detached and abandoned Lucas has become he realizes his daughter really has made up the story. She tells him she was being silly and nothing ever happened. About a year goes by and everything is straightened out and back to normal, or so it seems. Lucas is now shown with a girlfriend and his son. His son Marcus is celebrating finally becoming a man where he is dubbed his first shotgun for hunting. The entire crew of men go out to hunt. When Lucas is on his own you see someone off in the distance aiming to shoot at him. He barely dodges the bullet and is left standing there in awe and confusion. He is not so safe after all, someone is still out to end his life. 

The cinematography used in the film really captures its darkness. There is a constant sort of eerie feeling in the Dutch town throughout the film, even in the beginning when Lucas has not been accused. I could tell the film would soon take a twist. The cinematography done in the vandalizing scene had no forewarning it was coming. It surprised the audience and left me exasperated. I was constantly annoyed and frustrated with the other characters in the film. The way the townspeople were excluding Lucas from their lives with no real evidence of the abuse was aggravating. Bruun makes a comment stating, “People assume children always tell the truth. And the sad part is, they usually do.” This statement throws me off guard since it is coming from Lucas’s good friend. I do not agree with this, I believe children have wild imaginations. The false accusations against Lucas caused him unnecessary pain and stress 

and things will never be the same. 

Writers- Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm

Director- Thomas Vinterberg

Producers- Jessica Ask, Madeleine Ekman 

Main Cast- Mads Mikkelsen

Running Time- 111 minutes