OVP: The Hunt (2013)

Film: The Hunt (2013)
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Alexandra Rapaport, Thomas Bo Larsen, Susse Wold, Annika Wedderkopp
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Foreign Language Film-Denmark)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Mads Mikkelsen has in recent years become something of a mascot of the Best Foreign Language Film category (Gael Garcia Bernal, you had better watch your back!).  Since 2006, he's starred in three nominees for the category, this particular movie being the latest, and he also picked up the Cannes Film Festival prize for Best Actor for The Hunt.  For those who are predicting next year's Oscars, if Denmark submits The Salvation, it would behooze you to pick it.

(Spoilers Ahead) The Hunt tackles a very tricky, very touchy subject, and I always applaud gusto in a film when it comes to trying to mark new territory.  The film tells the tale of a man named Lucas (Mikkelsen) in small community in Denmark.  He works at a kindergarten, is a divorced, single dad, and has a relatively happy if uneventful life.  However, the young daughter of his best friend, Klara, (Wedderkopp) has an infatuation with him, and as revenge for him not kissing her, lies and says that Lucas molested her.  Soon, the entire school and community are out against Lucas, and we see group think result him being harassed and convicted by public opinion.

The film's touchy social commentary is easily its best attribute.  The actual acting and plotting of the film have a series of faults.  For starters, with the exception of Mikkelsen (whom I don't think is right for every role, but has the good sense to gravitate toward darker and more complicated male characters), none of the actors seem to really pop.  The film's characters generally tend to fall into the categories of stereotypes and paint-by-numbers rather than fleshing out their roles (this is particularly true of Rapaport as Lucas's girlfriend).

Additionally, the writing is just okay-the film doesn't expand too much on its tricky subject by making the audience, for example, not know if the crime was actually committed (Prisoners also came close to this conversation in the past year), and you know that in the end this will largely work out for Lucas (though the final scene-we'll get there in a second-does put a bit of a blotch on that theory).

However, I still give it three stars (I generally consider 3+ stars to be a recommendation for the film), and here's why: the actual story is quite interesting, and a solid discussion point after the film.  The movie starts a difficult conversation not only about the damage of false allegations, but also about the way that, with certain crimes in particular, we as a society tend to automatically assume the worst of people.  Perhaps it's because I just watched this past week's SVU (which "ripped from the headlines" the Woody Allen/Dylan Farrow situation), but this is something that public opinion does to a person.  Even if the person is exonerated, the whispers and mar on their reputation is permanent.  We see that in the final scene of the film, where, after everyone has moved on and Klara has admitted that she made everything up, Lucas is shot at by a stranger over the situation.  Reputations, regardless of guilt or innocence, remain forever hurt by accusations of heinous crimes, and I think it's a fascinating topic that Vinterberg is trying to examine in this movie, even if the actual results aren't as great as they could have been.

Those were my thoughts, but how about yours?  Do you think that this film was well-made (it got an awful lot of kudos) or that its difficult questions pose an interesting set of post-film-watching questions?  Where does it rank for you amongst last year's Best Foreign Film nominees?  Share in the comments!