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The Hunt centres around Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a middle-aged man who’s divorced and hardly sees his son and who could really use a break in life, but at least he has some good friends and colleagues… at first.
An innocent moment he’d rather forget happens while he’s working at the nursery, which leads to one child making a false allegation of inappropriate behaviour. Working in an establishment like that, theoretically, he could have any number of accusers, so I don’t want to say who or what is alleged since, while I knew the basics prior to watching this, I didn’t know the details which I’m therefore not listing here. Suffice to say, it all serves a shocking blow.
As such, and I can say this without giving spoilers, you can see how events can blow up in his face, unfairly, in a number of ways, especially since he’s just started a relationship with colleague Nadja (Alexandra Rapaport). In addition, there are moments when the film skilfully drip-feeds information to both you and to Lucas at the same time, so it’s certainly an intriguing watch.
Follow The Money‘s Thomas Bo Larsen may come second in the billing, but he’s mostly a supporting role as he doesn’t get to shine as much as he does in that TV series. That said, they should’ve included the second scene from the deleted scenes, as it gives him the best scene he could’ve had in the movie. It’s a great showdown between him and Lucas, and fits in well with the original ending (I’ll say no more if you haven’t seen it)
As for the title, hunting deer is a family tradition for Lucas and his family and friends, although sometimes, with friends like his, who needs enemies? In fact, it gets so twisty-turny, that even *I’m* even doubting what I think about what may or may not have happened!
I’ll also add that there are some moments I was kind of expecting, but I was still shocked when they happened. Plus, as an aside, Lucas does a lot of walking around his town, making me wonder why he doesn’t get a car!
Overall, Stormy Monday is a cracking thriller with great acting from all concerned.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition, and it’s only a few years old, so it’s the same high quality you’d expect from a new-to-recent movie.
The audio is in DTS HD-MA 5.1, and while it’s not a special effects extravaganza, there’s pleasing ambience and a score to accompany the dialogue.
The extras are as follows and while Arrow normally give us huge amounts on a back catalogue title, it’s a shame there’s only a few things on a new one:
- Making Of (7:00): A brief piece with clips mixed in with chat mostly from Mads and writer/director Thomas Vinterberg.
- Outtakes/Deleted/Extended scenes (12:24): Some good additional footage, here. As already stated, scene 2 should’ve been put back into the film.
- Alternate Ending (1:29): This goes in exactly what you expect from an alternate ending if you know how the film finishes already, but I think the original one is better as it leaves more ambiguity. I’ll detail below, in a spoiler heading, what happens, here.
- Theatrical trailer (2:03): In the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio.
I can only review what’s present on the check disc, but if you buy this title, you’ll also get a reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options, plus a booklet featuring new writing on the film and a contemporary interview with Thomas Vinterberg, illustrated with original production stills.
The main menu features a short piece of the score set to clips from the film, there’s a bog-standard 12 chapters and subtitles are in English.
The Hunt is out now on Blu-ray, and check out the full-size cover by clicking on the packshot.
|
FILM PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
8 10 8 3 |
| OVERALL | 7 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 110 mins
Year: 2012
Distributor: Arrow Films
Released: August 7th 2017
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: FCD1558
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
Languages: Danish (with some English and Polish)
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (ProRes 4:4:4 (1080p/24))
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Producers: Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Morten Kaufmann and Thomas Vinterberg
Screenplay: Tobias Lindholm and Thomas Vinterberg
Music: Nikolaj Egelund
Cast:
Lucas: Mads Mikkelsen
Theo: Thomas Bo Larsen
Klara: Annika Wedderkopp
Marcus: Lasse Fogelstrøm
Grethe: Susse Wold
Agnes: Anne Louise Hassing
Bruun: Lars Ranthe
Nadja: Alexandra Rapaport
Torsten: Sebastian Bull Sarning
Lars T: Steen Ordell Guldbrand Jensen
Johan: Daniel Engstrup
Bent: Troels Thorsen
Big Carsten: Søren Rønholt
Tiny: Hana Shuan
Inger: Jytte Kvinesdal
Kindergarden Teacher: Josefine Gråbøl
Ole: Bjarne Henriksen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.