One imagines how this might have played out with someone like the young Sam Raimi at the helm - a director who would play up the absurd comedy of the plot’s increasingly gruesome action, allowing viewers to enjoy Roger’s torment even as the mechanics of a chase film invest us in his survival.Īs it plays here, the movie’s eventual effort to make all right in Roger’s world is neither believable nor satisfying, but it isn’t so off-key as to spoil the silly kicks that precede it. So Tyldum has a problem when he expects us to start rooting for his survival. Ice-eyed and sporting a helmet of overlong blonde hair, Hennie sells Roger’s self-satisfaction so well in the film’s opening scenes that we ache for his comeuppance.
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The cat-and-mouse action starts early and lasts for most of the film, missing the opportunity to build the threat slowly, but what Headhunters lacks in mystery it makes up for in extreme scenarios: Midway through, Roger hides from a bloodthirsty hound by sinking into an outhouse’s muck, and that’s arguably not even the most disgusting thing that happens to him. The movie quickly diverts us when Clas, whose career in GPS technology dates to his experience as a military special-forces tracker, decides he needs to kill Roger. The film paints Roger as such a smooth operator, all catsuits and Swiss timing, that the way his troubles begin - he stops in the midst of stealing a Rubens from hunky tycoon Clas ( Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) to call his wife, thus learning that she’s having an affair with said hunk - is a contrivance we almost can’t swallow. He betrays everyone, in fact: His career as a headhunter is just a ruse for him to win the trust of wealthy executives, learn about their assets and habits, and schedule appointments for them with other clients, during which he can rob their homes. Intense and entertaining thriller packed with twists and based on award winning mystery writer Jo Nesbos novel, Headhunters stars Aksel Hennie (Max Manus). The chase-heavy Norwegian crime flick is twisty enough to please many arthouse patrons, though some will be rolling their eyes by the end.Īksel Hennie plays Roger, a preening corporate middleman who would be despicable even if he weren’t cheating on the wife he doesn’t deserve. Subscribe Follow A Crime is Afoot on WordPress.Thoroughly ludicrous but hardly unentertaining, Headhunters could have benefitted from a more gut-level approach than Morten Tyldum‘s arch self-seriousness, which flirts once or twice with American Psycho-like irony but never really goes there. I fully agree with Norman at Crime Scraps Review: ‘ Headhunters is a Scandinavian thriller with no pretensions to movie greatness, but it does have some memorable set pieces, and interesting over the top acting performances.’ I’m also looking forward to reading the book.
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An accomplished headhunter risks everything to obtain a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary. With Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Eivind Sander. It can be seen which is quite something, given the bleak outlook of our screens now-a-days. Jo Nesbøs Headhunters: Directed by Morten Tyldum. But one can just sit, relax and enjoy it. Brown learns that Greve is in the possession of an extremely valuable painting by Rubens and decides to risk it all to get rid of his financial problems.Īs a film, Headhunters is narrated at an excellent pace that enables to keep the interest most of the time despite some obvious flaws. Danish-Dutchman Clas Greve is the perfect candidate to Rogers new recruiting assignment, with his background as a former elite soldier and senior management in the electronics industry. When his beautiful wife Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund), an art gallery owner, introduces him to a former mercenary Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).
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He lives a life of luxury well beyond his means and chooses to subsidize his expensive lifestyle through stealing highly prized art. Plot Summary: Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is Norway’s most accomplished headhunter. Begoña and I went yesterday to the theatre and see Headhunters (Norwegian: Hodejegerne), a 2011 Norwegian-German film directed by Morten Tyldum and based on Jo Nesbø’s novel Hodejegerne ( Headhunters).