The Hunt

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg

R

****

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The Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen is “unforgettable” in this “quietly devastating” foreign-language drama, said Lou Lumenick inthe New York Post. Best known as the villain who took on James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale, Mikkelsen here plays a devoted kindergarten teacher who quickly becomes a pariah in his small town when he’s falsely accused by a 5-year-old of exposing himself to her. That young accuser is “no monster,” said Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. “Played with great sensitivity” by Annika Wedderkopp, the girl merely fibs to avenge a perceived slight. “More frightening than her charge is the way the adults handle it,” veering instantly into a panic that viewers will find both familiar and sickening. Eventually, this “indelibly powerful” movie “works its way toward a resolution that seemingly reaffirms the audience’s faith in human decency,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. But it remains a question whether the instructor’s life truly has been repaired. However a viewer might answer that question, The Hunt remains “an engrossing, morally complex tale.”