Oscar Nominee: The Hunt

Jagten / The Hunt (2012)

Dir: Thomas Vinterberg

A Danish film that watches a complex situation unfold that deals with some difficult subject matter, but here handled in a way that is simple, different, and compelling.

Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen) works at a nursery in a small Danish town, a respected member of the close-knit community. However, when his best friends young daughter wrongly accuses him of sexual abuse, things spiral out of control with the whole community affected and Lucas struggling to clear his name or hold his already troubled life together.

The director has handled this sort of subject matter before, but here unrestrained by previous ideals, the topic is handled in a fascinating way. Thomas Vinterberg was one of the co-founders of the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement, where film production was very simplified. It’s probably through this that he learnt the importance of a film’s focus being on a well-constructed story and full-developed characters, put together with simple editing. However, so much more can be done, and with more polished results now that he’s working without the constraints of that manifesto.

Mads Mikkelsen is very well cast in this role, he looks the part, very much an ‘everyman’. He’s proving himself to be an excellent actor who is now breaking out into roles that will be seen by a far wider audience. He’s possibly going to be working with Marvel soon if rumors are to be believed, while currently starring as Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the TV series ‘Hannibal’.

The film is nominated for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ at the Oscars tonight, and is the only foreign language nominee I’ve seen so far, but it was excellent in my opinion so I’m guessing it has a chance.

It’s really very compelling in the way it looks at how a false accusation that’s even recanted, still has a massive impact on the falsely accused, and the simple storytelling puts the focus right where it should be, on the characters. It kept me interested right to the very last shot.