The Hunt (***1/2)

It’s been a few decades since western countries began broad public movements to root out sexual abuse. No doubt this has been to the good and has reduced the number of child victims, but some people may also remember a number of false accusations in the 1980s against child-care providers, and a side effect may be that men who work with children become slightly suspect. I didn’t know what this film was about when I saw it, but this slight suspicion was part of my reaction when I saw Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a divorced father working in a small-town kindergarten. And, as it turns out, the plot centers around an accusation that he has abused his neighbor’s little girl.

In fact, he appears to be the victim of a misunderstanding. The first half of the Danish drama shows the steps by which entirely reasonable people could come to believe in the man’s guilt; the second is more about Lucas’s stunned reaction. Annika Wedderkopp sweetly plays the little girl who cannot anticipate, and only slowly comprehends, the impact of ephemeral remarks. The theme of wrongful accusation has been at the center of several classic films, including Twelve Angry Men, North by Northwest, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Atonement. This isn’t a thriller like North by Northwest and doesn’t focus on the legal case like the other three; it’s a smaller kind of film, but powerful in its way. Director Thomas Vinterberg is still probably best known for his 1998 feature The Celebration; this film is its equal.

IMDb link

viewed 8/8/13 at Ritz East and reviewed 8/8/13