Mads Mikkelsen is most notably known as a villain. Whether you recognize him more as the man opposing James Bond in Casino Royale or as Hannibal Lecter on NBC’s hit show Lecter, he’s very adept at playing the bad guy. But, in the most poignant performance of his career and one that earned him praise across the globe, Mikkelsen stars as Lucas, a kind and gentle daycare employee falsely accused of molesting one of his students in the Danish film and Academy Award-nominated foreign language film The Hunt. I struggle with movies that are subtitled. My philosophy often is if I can view a good movie in English or one that is in another language that will force me to spend a couple of hours reading while also trying to pay attention to the visuals on the screen, why wouldn’t I pick the movie in my native language? Unless a movie (or one of its leads) is nominated for an Academy Award (Amour, Maria Full of Grace), is recommended by a friend (The Lunchbox), or doesn’t have an English substitute (North Face), I’m probably not going to give it a chance. It’s not because I think that those movies will be bad. Like everyone, I have a job and many other hobbies, and, frankly, time is limited. However, when a foreign language film does breakthrough, and it is one that I think is well made, it is a film that I am likely to remember for a long, long time, if not for the rest of my life. This was certainly the case with The Lunchbox and North Face and is also the case with The Hunt.
I would be lying if I said that I knew anything about The Hunt before my Netflix viewing. I did know that it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, that it dead well with the critics (94% on Rotten Tomatoes), and that it had a cool title. And, because of its nomination, I knew that I would be viewing a foreign language film. Almost instantly, I knew that this film would be different from anything I thought it would be. Quickly, Lucas was identified as a likable chap. He was previously employed at a local school as an elementary teacher but was left jobless after that school closed. The children at his current daycare adore him and, while he was divorced and his teenage son Marcus (Lasse Fogelstrøm) didn’t live with him, he had a pretty good life. He was able to walk to work. He owned his own home. He had a loving dog. He had numerous friends and a budding romance with the beautiful Nadja (Alexandra Rapaport). But, because he was such a nice and endearing man, he had the affection of Klara, the daughter of his best friend Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen – The Wave, television’s Follow the Money), and one of the little girls at the daycare which employed Lucas. Played exquisitely by the young Annika Wedderkopp, Klara, who, in a moment of betrayal and anger, fabricates a story in which she says Lucas exposed himself to her. Of course, these are serious allegations and cannot be taken with a grain of salt. We wouldn’t expect, nor would we hope, that a person of any age would make such incriminating accusations. But here was this young girl, who undoubtedly knew the difference between right and wrong (I’m not sure that I would have if I were her age), who described Lucas’s, in meticulous detail, the actions of Lucas.
The genuine Lucas continues his day-to-day life while these investigations take place unbeknown to him. His warm demeanor and reserved warmth suggest that he is anything but a pedophile. But, of course, we all know that sometimes those who we least expect are often the ones who we should suspect the most. By in the case of The Hunt, there is no ambiguity. Lucas is not guilty of these crimes, and that, in itself, is not a spoiler to this film. When he is made aware of these, he is not told of the specificity of what his accuser said he did or who his actual accuser was. He is told to go home for a few days while the dust settles. His life quickly unravels as the false accusations gain a life of their own even after his original accuser recants her statement. Pretty soon, other students in the daycare are giving the same story, and soon the authorities are brought in to interrogate Lucas about the claims of sexual abuse.
It doesn’t matter that he is innocent of these crimes. His innocent means nothing. Even after it is proven, without a doubt, that Luas did not commit these crimes, the damage has already been done. He is completely shunned by the community that previously embraced him. The same friends with whom he used to spend his time drinking are now forbidding him to come to their homes. He is not permitted to shop at his local grocery store. The locals go to great lengths to make him pay for the heinous things that one little girl says he did. He is treated like a criminal and is forced to feel guilty about crimes he never committed. This is where Mikkelsen shines and where any man in America (or, in this case, any man in the world) idea comes into play. This could have happened to anyone. Why would a child lie? In the case of this movie, Klara lets the audience know why, but not any of the characters in the movie. But, again, none of that matters. She accused Lucas of something he didn’t do, and, as a result, his life is forever changed. Lucas refuses to leave his community. The easiest thing for him would be to move away and start over again. But he wants to be close to his son, and he also knows this is something he shouldn’t have to do. So when his circumstances become more difficult, Lucas fights back. And he does, though with Vinterberg’s meticulous direction, using the elements of time and space meticulously. Nothing is ever rushed. Mikkelsen tells as much with his nonverbals (mainly his facial expressions) as he does his verbals. And certain people stand up for him from the very beginning. He is willing to accept help from some people, but not all. Unfortunately, his relationship with Nadja unravels because Lucas doesn’t know how to process what is happening around him effectively. Lucas goes through the gamut of emotions you would expect from someone accused of such a terrible crime before being exonerated.
The Hunt is very powerful. Nothing is lighthearted. Nothing is taken for granted. The performances are top-notch, and the story feels real because it is real. Even as Lucas is achieving redemption for something he should never have been seeking redemption for in the first place, he is never meant to feel certain. No matter how much the evidence is stacked in his favor that he didn’t commit what he was accused of, there are still people who are convinced of his guilt. I never saw The Great Beauty (the movie that beat The Hunt for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars, but if I do, I’m expecting it to be great. The Hunt is a great film.
Plot 9/10
Character Development 9.5/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 10/10 (you won’t find better acting…Mikkelsen is absolutely fantastic and deserving of all the accolades he received…not to be overlooked, though, are the incredible performances of six-year-old Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm, Alexandra Rapaport, and Thomas Bo Larsen)
Screenplay 10/10 (highly engaging and real)
Directing 10/10 (from the film’s opening sequence until its final shot, Vinterberg showed complete mastery of the cinematic art)
Cinematography 10/10 (filmed in the outskirts of a small town in an unknown location in Europe in the winter months, Vinterberg’s crew made us feel as inhospitable as Lucas felt following the allegations against him)
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 9.5/10 (nearly two hours in length, and you wouldn’t want it to be any shorter in fear that it would ruin the storytelling)
Universal Relevance 10/10 (this could happen to any single one of us… unfortunately, a mere allegation can have the same effect as the transgression itself)
95.5%