Mads Mikkelsenhas become one of the film industry’s most versatile franchise actors, for his starring roles (usually as a villain) in some of Hollywood’s most successful franchises, including theMarvel Cinematic Universe,James Bond,the Wizarding World,Star Wars, and, most recently,Indiana Jones. As is the case with almost all actors, his beginnings were more humble, starring in smaller productions from his native Denmark in the late ’90s and early 2000s (including the excellentPushertrilogy about Copenhagen’s crime underworld). Admirably, despite the mainstream Hollywood success Mikkelsen has found as his career has evolved, he has never turned his back on his roots, and hascontinued to appear in smaller-scale Danish productions even after his ascent to superstardom.
The finest example of this would be his multiple collaborations withThomas Vinterberg, one of the most talented directors to come out of the modern-day Scandinavian film scene. The two first worked together in 2012’sThe Hunt(Jagtenin Danish), and combining a deftly written script and confident direction that allows for an uncomfortable level of realism with Mikkelsen’s heartbreaking performance, it has remainedone of the most brilliant, upsetting, and altogether haunting films of the 2010s.
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son’s custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
What Is ‘The Hunt’ About?
The Huntfollows Lucas, a mild-mannered and well-liked daycare worker in a small Danish town who, through a snowball effect set in motion by the lies of a child not realizing the consequences of her words,is falsely accused of molesting children at the daycare. While initially skeptical and unsure of how to react, the local community slowly starts to band together and disgustedly ostracize Lucas. The confused and blindsided Lucas is left with virtually no means of proving his innocence, and slowly deteriorates into a state of frustration, anger, and misery as every aspect of his life begins to decay around him.
This Drug-Fueled Drama Gave Us Unhinged Mads Mikkelsen Way Before ‘Hannibal’
Well before he played the notorious Hannibal Lecter, Mads Mikkelsen’s on-screen career launched with this disturbing character.
There are other plot details that add to the stakes and drama, namely that the child accusing Lucas is the daughter of his best friend (played by fellow Danish acting iconThomas Bo Larsen), but it is more prudent to look at how Vinterberg and co-writerTobias Lindholm convey the psychological horror of this situation without making the film unwatchable. Various filmmakers making films about similarly dark topics have been criticized for the relentlessness of their films' bleakness (for exampleLars von TrierorDarren Aronofsky), and it is the finesse with whichThe Huntis presented that stops it from becoming unbearably upsetting. This is not done cheaply or lazily though. Other films with this subject may have included some over-the-top, more melodramatic elements, something that would allow the audience to detach from the harshness of what is being shown and remember that it is “just a movie”, but much like Vinterberg’sDogme 95classicThe Celebration(Festenin Danish),The Huntis unflinchingly realistic. Rather,The Huntmanages to hold on to just a grasp of hope and humanity throughout its darkest moments through the more real and human parts of Lucas’ life (for example his relationship with his son), and the success of this tonal balance is also dependent upon Mikkelsen’s incredibly vulnerable performance.
Mads Mikkelsen’s Performance Is Relatable, Startling, and Heartbreaking
While the rest of the cast puts in great performances (including and especially astand-out child acting turnfromAnnika Wedderkoppas Klara, the accusing child),the film hinges on Mads Mikkelsen’s ability to take on this difficult material. The aforementioned ability to tonally convey the inherent misery of this story without making the audience completely check out lies in large part in Mikkelsen’s ability to make the audience both sympathize with and relate to him, while he himself does not devolve into a hopeless character. He does this perfectly, starting the film as a quiet local, one among dozens, who keeps to himself with a low-key demeanor: a character the viewer can easily identify as someone in their own lives or even as themselves. As this person that the viewer can then already sympathize with gets thrust further and further into this cruel and unfortunate circumstance,Mikkelsen’s relatable nature becomes the film’s linchpin for communicating its tragedy.
The viewer feels every disgusted look from the townspeople as the accusations spread, and can feel to their coreMikkelsen’s initial incredulity develop into his eventual desperation and frustration. The sense of shame and embarrassment that the innocent Lucas knows he should not be feeling yet is still overwhelmed by, as the community turns against him folds into Mikkelsen’s rage at the injustice of the situation and his inability to do anything about it.This all culminates in the film’s infamous church sequence, the apex of Lucas’ emotional devastation as he sits, drunk and baffled, in the audience of the children’s Christmas performance with the angry mob of a town surrounding him, his closest friend among them.
The Aftermath of ‘The Hunt’ For Mads Mikkelsen and Thomas Vinterberg
The Huntwas met with universal acclaim in both Denmark and abroad upon its release in 2012, and went on to receive numerous accolades, including anAcademy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Mikkelsen himself would go on to receive the prestigious Best Actor award at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.During his acceptance speechhe credited those who helped make the film possible, specifically Vinterberg, stating that “more than 80%…maybe 82% of this…is Thomas Vinterberg’s prize.”
The two would go on towork together again in 2020’s equally excellent and successful filmAnother Round(Drukin Danish), which won the Best International Feature Academy Award and got Thomas Vinterberg hisfirst Oscar nominationfor Best Director.Another Roundexplores similarly difficult and complex themes, in this case – alcoholism and the banality of adulthood, and both of these Vinterberg masterpieces haveallowed Mikkelsen the chance to showcase his enormous acting talents, particularly for his fans back in his home country.
The Huntis at times an almost impossibly difficult watch, and yet it never veers into the territory of being depressing for depression’s sake. The film manages to balance an incredibly uncomfortable story with some level of realism and humanity that keeps the viewer painfully engaged but also keeps them from wanting to tune out. Such an achievement is a credit to Vinterberg of course, but also to Mikkelsen, who conveys the anguish, despair, and ultimate resilience that this character needed to have, and as a result givesone of the most powerful performances of the 21st century thus far.
The Huntis currently available to stream on Tubi in the U.S.
