“The Hunt” – Nathan’s Movie Challenge, Week 30
“The world is full of nastiness, but if we stand by each other it would be ousted.”
Child molestation is reprehensible in every conceivable way. Putting it as the center theme of an entire movie makes for an extremely difficult viewing.
What elevates The Hunt is watching how great actors portray the emotional states of adults and children, how inability to react rationally isn’t as hard to believe as you’d expect, and how misunderstandings have a devastating domino effect on human lives.
It’s bleak. It’s depressing. It’s infuriating. It makes you feel things – and not always good things. There’s no happy ending.
Not all movies have to be fun, and I’m glad some decide to tackle the not-so-fun subject matter in a serious light.
I appreciated the movie, but I gather it’s going to be a tough one to rank. It went for an almost documentary-style presentation. Nothing hyper-real, or visually unique, or compositionally artistic – and that’s ok, it just might not be to its benefit against other films that do both. The films of Darren Aronofsky come to mind as an example.
Mads Mikkelsen is the carrier of this movie, and is definitely the reason it succeeds.
The Hunt was at the time of this review at #389 on my Flickchart list of shame (ranked #755 among the best films of all time). Here’s how it entered my chart:
The Hunt vs. Lars and the Real Girl
I suppose I enjoyed Lars and the Real Girl well enough, but other than the broad synopsis strokes, it’s mostly forgettable.
The Hunt vs. The Rocketeer
We have plenty of superhero movies now, but none quite like this one. Plenty of bad horror. Plenty of bad comedy. I guess Ant-Man is a bit similar, but Rocketeer has a charm and an “eye-wink” tone that modern movies almost always lack.
The Hunt vs. Men in Black
The sequels aren’t great, but the first film is.
The Hunt vs. The Virgin Suicides
I liked Virgin Suicides, and it’s very moody and dour like The Hunt, but I think Mads takes The Hunt to victory.
The Hunt vs. Underworld
Underworld is fine, but I have no real overall warm feelings about it. It’s good. The Hunt is definitely on the better than good spectrum.
The Hunt vs. Cast Away
Ah, Zemeckis + Hanks. Great isolation film. They make you care deeply about a volleyball. No small feat.
The Hunt vs. 127 Hours
If only any other actor other than James Franco was in 127 Hours…
The Hunt vs. Housebound
I actually forgot I watched Housebound. I had to watch the trailer to remind myself what movie it was. The Hunt will stick with me more.
The Hunt vs. Signs
Signs is a slow, slow burn. Worth it for that “under-the-door” scene. Character study at its most raw. Suspenseful to the point of discomfort.
The Hunt vs. Wanted
I really admire Timur Bekmambetov as a director. Night Watch/Day Watch and Wanted have so much style. Style goes far with me. Too bad he got saddled with Ben-Hur – a movie no one wanted.
The Hunt vs. Harvey
James Stewart is in top form, it’s an unusual script, and a solid execution. Super quirky for 1950. Great film.
The Hunt is now ranked #597 out of 1516 movies on my Best Movies of All-Time chart.
It’s now #36 on my Psychological Drama chart and ranked #19 out of all the movies I’ve seen from 2012.
Next up is Mud. In the meantime, check out the other films I’ve ranked during the challenge.