Thursday, February 2, 2012

Headhunters (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)
Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Genre: Action Thriller
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Language: Norwegian, Danish
Duration: 98 min.
Rating: 7.7  

Summary:
Roger Brown is an elite corporate headhunter who finances his lavish lifestyle by stealing art from his own clients, but trouble ensues when he targets a rare and valuable painting owned by a former mercenary.



Headhunters is a film directed by Morten Tyldum, based on a bestselling novel written by Norwegian crime author Jo Nesbø. It premiered at the 2011 Locarno Film Festival.

This one's a high adrenaline thriller filled with twists, turns, and ample amounts of Scandinavian black humor.  It stars Aksel Hennie as Roger Brown, a successful headhunter who lives far above his means in order to impress his gorgeous wife (Synnøve Macody Lund).  To support this lifestyle of fancy clothes, lavish modern house, and fast cars, he conspires to steal expensive art from his clients.  Soon he is introduced to Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a former mercenary in the possession of a rare and presumed lost painting, and of course this easy mark ends up being too good to be true.

Pure enjoyable entertainment is what this film is, with good amounts of tightly wound tension offset by some hilarious dark comedy.  Not the least bit believable, but it has slick production values, strong acting, and a fast paced creative mystery that is unpredictable and cleverly executed from start to finish.  Things do get pretty twisted and downright brutal for the main character, there are a couple scenes here that are guaranteed to make anyone cringe, but Hennie's great performance, and the overall lively energy of the film carry the otherwise over the top events very well.  

It's rare for a mainstream film not from South Korea to be as refreshing and exciting as this, and that means of course that Hollywood has already optioned it for a remake.  We'll see how that goes, but in the meantime I highly recommend tracking this one down and having a watch.

Bonjour Tristesse

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

Headhunters • Hodejegerne (2011)

22 comments:

murtazaali said...

Thanks for getting us all excited, Bonjour! Now, I am really looking forward to watching this one :P 

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for that suggestion.  Haven't heard of that one before.

Colin said...

I loved this film so much, I went out and bought three Nesbo books straight after. The film is surprisingly faithful to its source.

365 moviesandsongs365 said...

I'm sure its good for entertainment. There are quite a few hilarious dark comedies coming from that neck of the woods these days. The Finnish film Lapland Odyssey (2010) was a fun ride I thought.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

 Yeah that is a well done exciting teaser with no dialog or fluff.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Totally great fun.  I hope you get a chance to screen it soon.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for stopping by again, and any time you need a foreign film fix you know where to come.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

No not surprising at all, but the film is though.  I hope you get a chance to see it soon.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

You are welcome :)

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah it is a cool setup.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I have a feeling you will love it.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah I do love the recent trend of high quality films coming out of Norway, and the rest of Scandinavia too, and of course I agree that none of them need to be remade, but I also have to acknowledge that it is inevitable.

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

I don't mind if it ain't believable.

G said...

got to see this one

The Reel Foto said...

Brilliant trailer! I'm sold!

Lisa Thatcher said...

This looks like so much fun. It's going on the list!

FilmMasterT said...

Another excellent review showing off another international piece of cinema, I need to explore a little in films around the globe, and your blog I guess, I can use as a source for recommendations.

d_4 said...

You know, I was just thinking that it looked like something Hollywood would do. Not very surprising that there's gonna be a remake.. I'll just give this one a watch. Hopefully before the remake airs.

Julien said...

I saw the film, I confirm it's very well scripted. Very clever, it takes you where you don't expect, with several twists until the very end. Great thriller with some good humour too. I liked the voice over in the film (usually I don't)

The Angry Lurker said...

The story alone sounds good, need to see this one....

FrontRoomCinema said...

Aw man, this is one film I have been itching to see for ages!!

I am as they say here... WELL JELL

Jessica said...

I couldn't agree more! It's pure enjoyable entertainment and was one of my most pleasant surprises in 2011. It's such a wonderful mixture of action and humor. It was fun to see how this very unsympathetic protagonist somehow won me over. Norwegian film is on a roll. As usual I can't see the need for a remake. But that's just a pet peeve of mine...

Post a Comment