Director: Morten Tyldum
Pigeonhole: Suspense / Thriller / Crime Mystery
Basics: Roger Brown (Hennie) is Norway's top corporate headhunter. To keep up his lavish lifestyle and attractive wife Diana (Lund) showered with gifts, Roger supplements his income in other ways. He steals valuable works of art, with the assistance of a friend who works for a security company. Roger meets a man named Clas Greve (Coster-Waldau) who he learns has a rare, valuable painting that Roger decides to target for theft. Two problems: Clas is ex-military whose specialty was tracking criminals, and that Clas is interested in Diana. Roger may be in over his head, and the results will be deadly.Recommendation: I highly recommend seeing this film, it is paced perfectly and the thrills are genuine in that they are relying on good, believable acting and action, as opposed to special effects. 'R' rating is for language, violence, nudity and sexual content. Also - the spoken language is Norwegian.
My Take:**spoiler alert** Where most films have peaks and valleys as far as plot development and action goes, Headhunters is one of the rare instances where once the action gets going - starting with the theft Clas' painting - it never seems to slow down until the conclusion. It is also at this moment that we see Roger as an almost sympathetic character, despite his previous criminal actions.
The night after Roger has stolen the painting he goes out to his car to find his friend Ove slumped across the front of Roger's car, apparently dead. Roger panics, knowing that he and Ove's criminal enterprise has caught up with them. He quickly places Ove's body into the trunk of his car, and sits down on a sharp object hidden in his car seat. Upon examination, Roger discovers it was a syringe-like device previously filled with poison, that was clearly intended for himself, but Ove must have been poisoned getting into Roger's car the night before to retrieve the stolen painting to go sell for their bounty. Roger then drives to a lake and throws Ove's body in, now visibly feeling guilty about his friend's death - except, Ove comes to - so Roger dives into the water and pulls him out. Ove had apparently knelt on the syringe instead of sitting on it, so even though he did receive a does of the poison, it was not fatal. The two head to Ove's cabin, but his condition quickly deteriorates from the poison that remains and he begins pleading for Roger to call him a doctor. Ove is soon dead, but not from the poisoning...
Roger leaves the cabin, and standing outside is Clas, holding a machete, and being accompanied by his large, scary looking attack dog. Roger narrowly escapes and now decides to try to hide out at another cabin he sometimes stays at. However, Clas soon shows up and Roger realizes that he is somehow being tracked. A very thrilling cat and mouse chase ensues, in which Roger must also now evade the police, too. Some of highlights include: hiding in an outhouse; getting arrested; rolling in a car down an embankment; and being attacked by a former "friend" who is in cahoots with Clas.
While Clas seems to be moving through the scenes with cold determination and precision, Roger always seems to be able to use his mind and be a half of a step ahead of Clas' reach. Just when all seems to be headed towards disaster, Roger goes home to confess to his wife about his prior crimes and what is happening now with Clas. He is then finally able to turn the tables on his pursuer, and a trap is sprung. While I will not spoil the final outcome here, I should note that one real ironic element we do learn is that the rare painting Roger stole from Clas was a fake.
Extra:
- There is an American (and likely inferior) remake of this film scheduled for production now
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