Headhunters (2012) [Blu-ray]
Crime | Drama | Thriller
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Roger is a charming scoundrel and Norway's most accomplished headhunter. He lives a life of luxury well beyond his means and chooses to subsidize his expensive lifestyle through stealing highly prized art. When his beautiful wife, an art gallery owner,
introduces him to a former mercenary in possession of an extremely valuable painting, he decides to risk it all in order to obtain it, and in doing so, he discovers something that makes him a hunted man himself.
Storyline: Roger Brown an Executive Headhunter and a part-time high end painting thief finds himself embroiled in a cat and mouse game when he tries to destroy Clas Greve's career prospects. However, Clas is a former member of a
special tactical military force and will stop at nothing to ensure Roger is out of the picture and the job is his. Written by Paddy McManus
Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben, September 7, 2012 Most write-ups of Headhunters sound the same, because no reviewer with any respect for the reader wants to give too much away. The film is one of those rare
thrillers that rivets viewers to their seats wondering what will happen next, but it does so the hard way, eschewing arbitrary "twists" and driving events from an internal logic that's been carefully worked out, even as the plot becomes so surreal that
you're sure it's a dream. It's a tricky high-wire act that requires precision work from everyone involved.
Headhunters began as a novel by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, who also happens to be the vocalist and songwriter for a successful rock band, Di Derre. Nesbø is best known for his detective fiction featuring a tough investigator named Harry Hole and
his children's books centered on a quirky character known as Doktor Proktor, but the novel that became Headhunters was a standalone creation published in 2008. The film adaptation was produced by Yellow Bird, the same company that turned Stieg
Larsson's Dragon Tattoo novels into enormously successful Swedish films. It opened to great acclaim in Europe in 2011, followed by a successful limited U.S. run in 2012.
The film's lead character is Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie), who is Norway's most successful executive recruiter. As Roger informs us in voiceover, he is 5' 6" tall and constantly feels the need to compensate for his lack of height. To this end, he has
married a classically statutesque Nordic blonde, Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund), whom he deeply loves, but perpetually fears losing. The biggest—really, the only—source of marital discord is that Diana wants children and Roger doesn't. To distract
Diana from the issue, Roger routinely buys her expensive gifts he can't afford, and they live in a lavish house much bigger than they need, on which he can't maintain the payments, despite his successful practice placing top candidates with large
multi-national companies.
So, like many people who need extra money, Roger moonlights . . . as an art thief. In Headhunters' crisply edited opening scenes, Roger demonstrates his carefully honed technique for slipping into a private residence, exchanging a valuable artwork
for a copy good enough to go unnoticed for an extended period of time, then slipping out again without a trace, all in less than ten minutes. The entire scam depends on a close partnership with an eccentric (and that's putting it mildly) named Ove
Kjikerud (Eivind Sander), who works for the security company that seems to have cornered the market on home burglar alarms. From company headquarters, Ove deactivates the security system just long enough for Roger to perform the swap, after which Ove
deletes all traces of his activity from the master computer. Then Ove drives the stolen goods to the fence in Sweden, while Roger goes home to Diana.
Roger governs his dangerous double life by rigorous discipline. When his mistress, Lotte (Julie R. Ølgaard), breaks his rule about not mentioning their relationship to a single soul, Roger ends the relationship that very moment. In his recruiting efforts,
he politely but firmly directs applicants how to behave. A candidate for a CEO position, Lander (Kyrre Haugen Sydness), has made himself appear too eager for the job. He will certainly be offered the position, but Roger orders him to decline. Why? asks a
mystified Lander. Because, explains Roger, that will make you more desirable, and I stake my reputation that I will get you a better deal. "Reputation" is the quality that unites Roger's two worlds; it's an artist's reputation that makes a painting
valuable, a CEO's reputation that gets him a job and a headhunter's reputation that enables him to deliver results.
Roger's undoing comes when he's offered two great opportunities (one for each of his "professions") in the same package. At a party to celebrate the opening of Diana's new art gallery, which is Roger's latest gift to his wife, he meets a tall, handsome
recent transplant to Norway named Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, best known here from Game of Thrones). A former top executive of a Dutch company who decided to retire early, Greve is finding that he misses the action. When he and Roger meet,
they recognize a mutual interest and agree to have lunch. Of even greater interest to Roger is something that Greve has told Diana: He owns a valuable painting by Rubens, which he inherited from his grandmother. He keeps it in his apartment.
Roger now begins a process he believes he has thoroughly mastered, but from the moment he enters Greve's apartment, he has stepped through the looking glass. As one bizarre event follows another, Askel Hennie gives a stunning performance of an intelligent
and resourceful individual who can't quite understand how he lost control of everything but is so desperate to regain it that he will do anything (and I do mean anything). Be warned that later portions of this film are not for the young or the
faint of heart. The neat Scandinavian lines and tidy surfaces of the opening scenes only serve to highlight the unholy mess into which Headhunters ultimately descends. To see where it ends up, you'll have to watch the film.
Some viewers live to find "plot holes" in movies, and Headhunters isn't immune. Every good story depends on a certain degree of chance and coincidence. (So does life, for that matter.) The test of a thriller isn't whether every last detail is
accounted for, but whether it successfully pulls you into its machinery and holds you there for the duration. Among the key elements required for such a feat are a director with a vision, a story you can't get out in front of, an editor with a clever
sense of rhythm and a lead actor who's able to engage the viewer's interest and, ultimately, sympathy. Headhunters has all that and much more. Highly recommended.
[CSW] -3.3- This reviewer said it better than I could:
The film has a very stylish bent and it includes, a few odd twists, and a couple of interesting meetings and exchanges that nicely set up the story before a surprise encounter, starts a roller coaster ride of; shocks, surprises, and
unexpected turns, that get things moving towards an appropriately twisted ending. There is a smidgen of eye candy, a bit of a body count, and a modicum of high impact gore, as the pursuits, betrayals, high stakes maneuvers, and bullets take their toll,
before a somewhat contrived ending brings thing to a head. A good looking cast, plenty of action, a fair amount of tension and a few cringe worthy and head shaking scenes, help round out the fun. Not for everyone, but recommended for those in the mood for
a bit of, cinematic tension, high stakes action, and a rather ironic look at relationships.
[V4.5-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box
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