Pick of the week: “The Hunt“ — My full review is here. This Danish film is on the shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film for this year’s Oscars. It stars Mads Mikkelsen as a kindergarten teacher who becomes the town pariah after a young girl makes a false accusation against him. It’s reminiscent of “The Crucible” in showing how suspicion can spread through a small town, overwhelming judgment, and how it is to stamp out.
“The Hunt” plays Monday through Thursday at Point and Eastgate Cinemas. Not rated, 1:52, three stars out of four.
Even when things get very bad, the little Danish town in “The Hunt” seems so nice. It’s a place where everybody knows everybody, where folks walk to school and drop in unannounced in each other’s homes, where the pews are full on Christmas Eve.
It’s in this bucolic little retreat that director Thomas Vinterberg (“The Celebration”) creates a modern-day “Crucible,” a frighteningly plausible examination of how suspicion can spread through otherwise decent people.
Madison Movie 