What a pleasant surprise I had while watching the Norwegian crime/thriller/drama Headhunters, “Hodejegerne” in original! It is a 2011 Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany co-production with meaning. Some of the critics say it lacks logic. I don’t think so. Every second is planned to mean what it has to mean, and the surprises are plenty. One doesn’t need a lot of explaining while watching Headhunters. I have been first intrigued, then pleased. The message is also fine, because unbelievably, it’s about love. “Love prevails”, actually.
Aksel Hennie in Headhunters
[source of all pics: imdb.com]
Headhunters Plot
The movie hero is named Roger, and his height is one meter sixty-eight—five feet six. He declares that at the start of the film, and again at the end. Given that his wife, the blonde Diana whom he worships, kind of towers over him, you can make an idea about his point of view.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnøve Macody Lund in Headhunters
Roger is working at a high-end recruitment agency—hence the movie’s title. He has a double life as an art thief. Without spoiling what will happen, I’ll tell you what he sometimes does. Interviewing his potential candidates for various executive positions he gathers information that can lead him to a heist. Roger is aided by a contact at a security firm, Ove, who disables the alarm and takes his cut. Ove has a kinky Russian playmate whom he proudly showed off to his colleagues at the surveillance company. But Roger’s luxurious life and his idea of pampering Diana costs much more than what he makes as a headhunter.
Cast & Crew
Aksel Hennie is Roger, a successful Norwegian headhunter. In real life he is taller than he pretends of being here. Synnøve Macody Lund is Diana, Roger’s tall blond wife. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is Clas Greve, a potential tracking company manager. Eivind Sander is Ove Kjikerud, a surveillance and alarm company employee. Julie R. Ølgaard is Lotte, a mistress. Kyrre Haugen Sydness is Lander, a candidate.
Headhunters – Poster
With the exception of Coster-Waldau, whom I have recently watched in a B American movie called Shot Caller (2017), not bad, just a little bit gory, and whom you know maybe from “The Game of Thrones” TV show, I haven’t heard of any of them before. If I did, I don’t remember. I read Aksel Hennie appeared in Ridley Scott’s The Martian (2015), but I really don’t remember him, I wasn’t quite a fan of that movie. Doesn’t matter, on imdb.com, Jo Nesbø’s profile wasn’t even updated, Headhunters is stil “in production”. Jo Nesbø is the novel’s writer, “Hodejegerne” (The Headhunters, in Norwegian, in original).
With Morten Tyldum, the movie’s director, the story is different. He got a BAFTA nomination for Headhunters, and, more than that, he is The Imitation Game‘s director as well, for whom he received an Oscar nomination for directing. The screenplay is written by Lars Gudmestad and Ulf Ryberg.
Trailer
The trailer seems a little bit revealing, but I keep the faith that it can be more inciting than it seems. I gave it a 9, out of ten, and I recommend it. Dark as it is, it has its sense of humor. Scandinavians are great movie makers. I promise I’ll come back as soon as possible with more movies from the Nordic peninsula.
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