Review of The Hunt (2013) by Diego T — 14 Jul 2014

Once upon a time in Arizona, a child was once arrested for drawing what "looked like a gun." In upstate New York, a kid was suspended for wearing an NRA t-shirt. Hell, when I was in sixth grade, my teacher got mad at me for drawing a grappling hook on a test, because it "Could be used as a weapon." There's a mentality in the world today where, whenever the slightest threat to children's safety is mentioned, people go absolutely out of their minds. And after stories of pedophile priests and Columbine, who can blame them? Well, I can. I've long been disgusted by people who go out of their way to create drama and terror based on their own paranoia and warped perceptions of reality, and if there was ever any doubt in anyone's mind that the PC movement has come too far, it should have been eradicated by The Hunt.

In this Danish drama, a kindergarten teacher (Mads Mikkelsen) is accused by one of the kids in his care of sexually abusing her. The accusations are baseless, and when the child is questioned about the subject, the therapists and teachers feed her the answers. What follows is something that can only be described as a witch hunt. Parents driven insane with their protective instincts immediately begin seeing "warning signs" in their children, prompting the other kids to declare that they were abused as well. What makes the situation all the more horrible is the knowledge that no matter the outcome of the eventual court hearing, Mikkelsen will be shunned from society forever, with this fallacy tarnishing his permanent record.

This film is equal parts engrossing and utterly infuriating. While watching it, I began to have that intangible yet animalistic desire to reach through the screen and punch the characters in the face. It's quite a testament to this film's subject matter (and the way it handles it) that it can elicit such a reaction from me. The script is also excellent, and all the reactions of the character seem real and humanistic. My few complaints (and they are very few) stem mostly from Mikkelsen's seeming inability to deny the allegations. Why is it that in movies like this, where the main character is accused of something horrible, they can't just say "No, I didn't do it?" Why have them beat around the bush by asking "Do YOU think I did it? Huh? Huh? Do ya?" It's not the way any sane person would react in such a situation.

Still though, the rest of the film is strong. For a minute, I doubted the motivation of the little girl's mother-- She had been a longtime friend of Mikkelsen's, and was far too quick to judge him. But things like that are easily explained away by overprotective mothers and the insane tendencies of parents. As for Mikkelsen himself, he's perfect for the role, and even looks a tad pedophile-y with his beady little eyes and greasy, long hair. If I saw him at a playground, you bet I'd be a little disturbed. But that's the way the film plays right off the audience's cheap suspicions and hang-ups: By presenting us with the story we've heard so many times in the news and then completely turning the tables.

If nothing else, this is a great movie to spark debate about. One could easily say that situations like this one rarely happen, and that usually when a kid says they were molested, they are telling the truth. But that misses the core message of this movie. It's not just about this one case, or whether or not there are others like it. It's a massive, cutting jab at the social justice, PC culture of our times. I'm waiting for the day when all kids in Florida get arrested because the state "Kind of looks like a gun," or when a man is put in jail for staring at a little kid for a few seconds too long. Being hypervigilant is a slippery slope, and I give this movie a lot of respect for so expertly skewering that.

Final Score for The Hunt: 8/10 stars. Despite a few plotting complaints, this is a great film that will (hopefully) make a lot of people think twice before they gather a posse together to go pick out scapegoats. Even if you don't agree with the film's premise, you'll surely be sucked in by Mikkelsen's performance. He's a heartbreaking character in every possible way, and over the course of the film he loses everything. I was hoping that this movie would have a happy ending, and for the most part, it did... and it almost had me fooled up until the very end. I should have known better than to trust a movie this gloriously twisted. No spoilers, though. Just watch the film.