One-Liners: Fiction

THE HUNT (B+) - Mads Mikkelsen is powerful as a presechool teacher falsely accused of sexually abusing his young charges.

Just when life seems to be turning around for Lucas -- he's regaining custody of his teenage son, and cute Nadja is making her move -- little Klara (a mesmerizing Annika Wedderkopp), confused by Lucas' kindness and by a pornographic image she has seen, accuses him of exposing himself to her. The interview done by the head teacher and a specialist brought in to assess the situation is a deft depiction of manipulation and misunderstanding and the frustration of dealing with young children. For some reason, everyone assumes that a 4-year-old would never make up such a thing. Soon, incited by the adults, other children start to exhibit "signs" of possible abuse.

The brilliance of Thomas Vinterberg's movie (he co-wrote it with Tobias Lindholm) is how he takes a simple premise and turns it into an absolute horror film, as Lucas' life unravels and he becomes an outcast in the small town. Soon, the viewer can't help but wonder if Lucas may, in fact, have done something wrong. All of his previous, seemingly innocuous actions (holding hands with Klara, helping a boy use the toilet, play-wrestling with the kids) now seem questionable.

Mikkelsen ("A Royal Affair" and the lead role in TV's "Hannibal") brings an elegance and dignity to his role. Lucas' kindness is real, and so is his sense of outrage over the almost casual way in which one stray comment from a child can snowball into a profoundly damaging scandal. Thomas Bo Larsen is equally moving as Klara's father, Theo, who is one of Lucas' best friends. To Vinterberg's credit, Theo's reaction to the incident is in no way black and white. And the performance drawn from little Annika is an amazing accomplishment; she has the unsettling innocence of the girl from "Poltergeist" along with the assuredness of an adult like Nicole Kidman.

The title comes from the hunting crowd Lucas hangs with and the rite of passage he hopes to see his son pass through. (And, of course, the obvious metaphor of the hunter becoming the hunted.) The opening scene shows the grown men frolicking naked in a frigid lake, suggesting that we never fully lose our innocence but rather surrender it at times to society and to the perils of being a trusting part of a community. 

THE ANGELS' SHARE (B) - An endlessly charming Scottish tale of a ragtag group of petty criminals falling in together during their community service to discover a fondness for the production of whisky, thanks to their kindly overseer who takes them to a distillery on one of their field trips.

The story revolves around Robbie (the magnetic Paul Brannigan), who just barely escapes a prison sentence, in part because his girlfriend is about to give birth to a son. Robbie catches hell from the thugs he assaulted and fields threats from his girlfriend's dad, who wants Robbie out of her life. After the birth of his son, he vows to put his violence behind him.

While performing community service, four of the participants bond under the direction of Harry, a friendly chap who loves his whisky and fancies himself a would-be aficionado. The group includes the cartoonishly dense Albert (Gary Maitland) who plays off Harry in a way that recalls Ricky Gervais and Karl Pilkington from Gervais' animated HBO show.

Robbie leads the gang in a caper involving a rare cask of whisky worth more than a million dollars. The plot unfolds neatly and believably.

Veteran filmmaker Ken Loach oversees the production with a sure hand. The story is downright quaint at times, sort of like Danny Boyle's "Millions," and wouldn't be out of place on the Hallmark Channel if it weren't for the characters' wall-to-wall foul language.  The movie overcomes a slow start to win the viewer over, and the ending is just about perfect.