"The Hunt" - Review

“The Hunt” - Review

Starring Danish actor Mad Mikkelsen “The Hunt” is a brilliant, disturbing story of how a simple innocent lie can not only become a life devastating truth, but a false truth that takes rapid flight on nothing more than a baseless gossip that is allowed to continue to flourish endlessly without anyone making the minimum effort to working with all due diligence to getting to the real truth.

Written in subtitles, The Hunt takes place in rural Denmark where we see Mads playing a day care school aid named Lucas whose life from on the very onset of the film has been turned upside down due to a recent divorce and custody battle. But his circumstances are made even worse when he is clearly falsely accused of having inappropriate contact with one of the children at the school.

The brilliance of this film is the stellar performance of Mikkesen who delivers an Oscar worthy performance as a kind, earnest decent, somewhat lonely but personable man who only wants the minimum joys out of life, that being the respect of his friends and colleagues, the love of his son and the comfort of his loveable dog Fanny who walks with him to work each day.

This film showcases many traits of human nature. For one the subtle strength of how an unfounded lie can move brutally quick through the minds of supposedly adults with an unrelenting cancerous affect on the collective conscience of that community, as well how it can attempt to strip away the decency out of an innocent man’s life. It also a reaffirming story  about the importance of how many people routinely and casually  proclaim in their life how many multiple friends they have or think they have.

Specifically, the film magnifies the fact very succinctly that Lucas as well in real life for many of us as well, when a dire and awful circumstance arises, when times truly test friends commitment to you, it is then you may discover, dramatically and even disastrously so that you may be only lucky to having just one person in you in your life that you deem worthy to refer and truly to believe is your friend.

The Hunt clearly examines down to its marrow how rare it is for someone to stick with you in the ups and downs of life; unflinchingly against all accusers and false claims with a profound display of reverence for unbridled loyalty to you above all others.

Finally we see very meticulously the many ugly sides to human nature when a brazen lie takes hold. But what it also does is give greater appreciation for the perseverance of one’s own inner fortitude, the quiet strength to maintain your decency and the need to hold to on to ones dignity when life deals you with things that put you in a very lonely struggle.

This is really a very good film, fabulously acted all around and led masterfully by Mads Mikkelsen who won the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for this role.

4 Stars