It feels like over the years the once bright star of Thomas Vinterberg’s has somewhat dimmed. The director is still remembered and praised for the groundbreaking Festen, carried out by the guidelines Dogme 95, a manifesto that he was a co-author of. But since then Denmark’s most handsome artist subsequent films have stealthily snook under the radar, weaving through festivals but not gaining public recognition (case of Submarino) or disappointing film critics (Dear Wendy). Now, thanks to The Hunt, this situation may change again. For the better.
The concept of the script is old as the world. Tobias Lindholm, its writer, refers to the witch-hunt mechanism, where guilt or innocence of the victim is not crucial – it is the self-reinforcing, unjust and unstoppable cycle of targeting, stigmatizing and destroying the previously chosen scapegoat that fuels it. In this case, however, the authors have gone a step further: because the innocence of the main protagonist is not questioned for even a brief moment.
Lucas (masterful Mads Mikkelsen), a divorced teacher at a local kindergarten, gets accused of pedophilia. The alleged victim is the daughter of his friends, a blond-haired angel with big blue eyes. Lucas has a great attitude towards kids. Little Klara is overwhelmed by his warmth and mistakes his friendship for what she calls love. When she confesses to him, he kindly explains that it cannot be. Feeling rejected and alone Klara says “something” – just a few words to the supervising teacher, something childishly stupid that embarrasses her right away and she immediately denies it. But a word once said can never be taken back. Besides, we all know that children do not lie…
The very way assumptions and conclusions are made by the local community raises eyebrows and evokes anger. The false rumor will feed on itself and clamp around the protagonist’s neck like a noose. Further attacks against him advance the action forward and lead us through the darkest recesses of the human soul. Many times we feel like grabbing the hero’s shoulders and not only embracing him, but also shaking him: “Do something!”. Lucas does not cry for help, he doesn’t fight back. He who excuses himself, accuses himself – isn’t that right?
The Hunt is an extremely effective, skilfully put together psychological thriller, which only tools are human character traits. With these simple ingredients it composes a symphony that is gaining more and more power with every minute. The accents are distributed masterfully, allowing the story to transform from “piano” to “forte” in a blink of an eye. The best-actor winner from Cannes 2012 hits our screens with considerable delay, but it well worth all the waiting. Just watch out for your eyes – they’re likely to water up profusely throughout The Hunt. And for good reason.
One thought on “Thomas Vinterberg Makes An Emotionally Powerful Return to Form with ‘The Hunt’”
This is probably my number 1 movie so far this year. It was excellent. I agree with everything in this review apart from the rating. I think it’s an A movie.