The opening scenes of The Hunt highlight the lovely close-knit feel of kindergarten teacher Lucas's (Mads Mikkelsen) hometown. Men who've known each other since childhood horse around like boys, tease each other about crushes, and get drunk together. We feel the closeness and love Lucas and his best friend Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen) have for each other, though their revelry is eventually cut off by reproachful looks from Theo's wife, who argues with her husband about his silly behavior. Even before the film arrives at the accusation that Lucas sexually harassed Theo's daughter Klara, the filmmakers add a deeper note to the conflict. The Hunt may be more obviously concerned with personal betrayal and hysteric vilification, but its interest in the close relationship between these two middle-aged men also forces us to examine the sacrifices of adulthood. In wanting to support his family, Theo is ultimately forced to choose between support for his childhood friend and his role as a loyal husband and protective father. The film's plot contains extreme circumstances and dramatic scenes, but the loss of childhood friendships it depicts in its quieter moments is identifiable and heartbreaking.
Of course, the idyllic vision of a harmonious Danish society that begins the film almost feels like Vinterberg's version of a joke. Just as the town comes together for drinks and celebrations, we see them cooperate to destroy one of their own, ripping their peaceful community apart in the process. We can see or understand every step of the chain here, from the frustration of Theo's wife to Klara's stares, to Klara's mumbled story to glimpses of conversations among teachers to outsiders' perspectives to the gut reactions of furious parents... But the anger and persecution here is more than just a chain reaction - it's self-sustaining. More children come out with other false accusations, more parents are upset, and we lose track of the individuals who hate Lucas. The town is now consumed by their anger, with every employee of the town's supermarket barring Lucas from shopping there and complicit in his beating, an unknown attacker killing his dog, and a faceless assailant shooting at him from afar. Where the first instance of violence was a parent pushing Lucas out of the school, each successive attack seems less explicitly connected to Lucas than to the idea of a generic villain. While the attacks range from beatdowns to psychological torment, they grow increasingly faceless and distant.
I don't quite know how to describe it, but the idea of "boys becoming men and men becoming boys" nails the fluctuations in maturity. The grownups resort to childish behavior and violence, while Lucas's son is forced to take on the responsibilities of being an adult and defending his father against everyone (while also reverting to a childish argument with Klara). While the hunt represents maturity to this town, it's clear that true maturity is much more complicated than just a ceremony (and may never be reached by the townsfolk).
Lucas's spurning of his girlfriend despite her relative support due to his own inability to handle the persecution felt both real and tragic. It didn't diminish her character, but added to Lucas's sense of loneliness. Additionally, there's something interesting in Lucas failing to appreciate her ability to handle constant alienation as a non-native to the town while being depressed about his own situation.
In addition to the great construction of the film and variety of ideas, it was nice to not have any twists regarding the allegations of molestation (i.e. "oh, Theo was actually the molester!").
I'm not sure whether the inclusion of the children's choir at the Christmas service was an overly-blunt reminder or Vinterberg's dark sense of humor, but it's definitely weirdly funny to have the kids trotted out while Lucas and Theo are already going through so much internally. Speaking of the dark Danish sense of humor, there's a moment when Lucas hugs his son after being released from police custody and his friend jokingly yells at him to stop fondling his boy.
While the filmmakers recognize the horror of molestation, it's also interesting to watch the children's assumed truthfulness and innocence be undermined. Klara's brother and his friend look through pornographic images (and share one with Klara, which might be the start of the whole incident), Klara falsely accuses Lucas of molestation, the other children begin to claim the same thing (which I assume was a bandwagon effect), and Lucas's son asking his father about a woman's underwear that he found in Lucas's house (while, when Lucas inquires about his son's girlfriend, his son shrugs her off his question as that was last year's girlfriend). While Klara still seems partially unaware of the world around her, her (and the other children's) ability to incite drastic incidents in the town sort of reminds me of Haneke's The White Ribbon.
Crew & Cast
Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration, Submarino)
Written by Thomas Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm (A Hijacking, Submarino, Borgen)
Cast
Mads Mikkelsen - Lucas
Thomas Bo Larsen - Theo
Annika Wedderkopp - Klara
Lasse Fogelstrøm - Marcus
Susse Wold - Grethe
Alexandra Rapaport - Nadja