Jagten (2012)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Lucas	Mads Mikkelsen	½
Nadja, Lucas' girlfriend	Alexandra Rapaport
Theo, Lucas' best friend	Thomas Bo Larsen
Grethe	Susse Wold
Bruun, Lucas' brother	Lars Ranthe
Agnes, Theo's wife	Anne Louise Hassing
Ole	Bjarne Henriksen
Klara	Annika Wedderkopp
Marcus	Lasse Fogelstrøm

Review

Dogme 95 filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg is the man behind this hard-hitting film about an important theme, namely false accusations and mass hysteria – in this case concerning child molestation. Vinterberg, who was one of the founding fathers of the Dogme 95 movement, has this time put aside the rigid allegiance to the Dogme 95 rules which we saw in his breakout film Festen, and as such, Jagten is more traditional stylistically, even if it still contains dogme elements. To put it another way, Jagten is far more assured and balanced formally. The result is a more efficient film; one that never threatens to become a caricature of itself. Mads Mikkelsen is at the centre of everyone's attention, and his strong performance carries the film forward. His work is make or break for the film's effect. The most interesting, or perhaps wily, aspect of Jagten is not necessarily the portrait of mass hysteria and denunciation in a local community itself, but rather how the Mikkelsen character's disbelief and stubbornness – ie. his inability to fully grasp what is about to happen around him, and his (rightful) unwillingness to take responsibility for it – fuels the fire and intensifies the situation. In many ways, Jagten is a recipe for all the wrong ways to act in a situation like this, for parties on both sides of the table, and it is all painfully relevant when taking into account that there are several examples of similar situations from real life.