93% The Hunt

All Critics (68) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (63) | Rotten (5)

It is a devastating film to watch, a heedful one, and a tragic reminder that no matter how well a life has been conducted, the mere whiff of such scandalous behavior is condemnation enough.

[A] quietly devastating drama about a soft-spoken, bespectacled and devoted kindergarten teacher whose life is upended by a false accusation from one of his students.

This is filmmaking of a high order, even though the production's scale is modest and the climax is not without its facile contrivances.

Unsettling, forthright and thought-provoking, The Hunt is also brilliantly titled.

This story is about a witch hunt, an accusation of impropriety that takes on a life of its own, shattering bonds of trust in a close-knit community.

"The Hunt" is a merciless examination of the fear and savagery roiling just below the surface of bourgeois life.

...incredible acting by Mikkelsson, (but) what is unforgettable is the acting of the young girl who makes the allegation, Annika Wedderkopp. It's remarkable that someone so young could give such a performance.

The characters... are not symbolic. They're real people, leading imperfect lives... but we can relate to their feelings, and their actions at every turn of this searing drama.

Vinterberg's best filmmaking since his Dogme '95 entry "The Celebration."

Mikkelsen, one of his country's finest actors, in collaboration with Thomas Vinterberg, one of its finest directors, delivers what may be his strongest performance yet.

A nuanced portrait of a fundamentally decent man grappling with a world that has decided to treat him indecently.

The innocent man wrongly accused is something that everyone can identify with - what if it happened to me?

Mikkelsen's an actor of restraint, and ...Vinterberg's modern day witch hunt tale gives the actor a whole range of restraint to work with in a film whose title begins literally, turns figurative, then, in a chilling coda, suggests a merging of the two.

The Hunt works as simplistic, cathartic melodrama. It's about ambiguity, but there's nothing ambiguous about the film itself.

The Hunt is beautifully shot and performed. But gritty, immersive Dogme it is not.

The Hunt may prove stressful, frustrating, even enraging, but it's also an unbelievably effective watch, that, if nothing else signals an undeniable return to form for Vinterberg, and yet another blistering performance from Mikkelsen.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_hunt_2013/

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