Movie Review: Headhunters

Headhunters treads on familiar ground, but its wicked humor, great performances, and fun plot twists make an entertaining grisly thriller.

Headhunters stars the talented Aksel Hennie (Max Manus) as Roger, a charming scoundrel and Norway’s most accomplished headhunter. Roger is living a life of luxury well beyond his means, and stealing art to subsidize his expensive lifestyle. When his beautiful gallery owner wife introduces him to a former mercenary in the possession of an extremely valuable painting, he decides to risk it all to get his hands on it, and in doing so discovers something which makes him a hunted man. Headhunters is based on Jo Nesbø’s best-selling thriller from 2008. — (C) Magnolia

Headhunters is part cat-and-mouse chase and part art heist.  The film brisks through an exciting plot of bloody yet funny twists and turns. It reminiscent of the Coen Brother’s style with a splash of gore.

The whole cast is great. Aksel Hennie is believable as the amoral yet likeable art thief Roger Brown. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is sinister and suave as the surveillance tech innovator Clas Greve (who resembles his beloved character Jamie Lannister minus the biting sense of humor). Along with him are a group of quirky supporting characters who tears Roger’s sleek and orderly world apart.

At surface level Headhunter is a fun movie but in detail, it’s nothing new. The film treads on familiar elements – the hunter becomes the hunted and chased by a host of villains (the renowned detective, an arch enemy, and a couple of cops chasing the wrong lead) , whom he outsmarts in the end through a “calculated” (mostly implausible) series of events. The anti-hero becomes indestructible at every fatal encounter.

In spite of this, Headhunters is an enjoyable film that tackles the dangerous side of the male ego fueled by insecurity.

My Rating: 7/10