"Headhunters" can best be described as a Norwegian art heist/executive recruitment thriller featuring an adulterous protagonist with a Napoleon Complex. Oh, I should mention it's a little violent too. And I should mention it's tons of fun, if not to be recommended for the squeamish.
Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is an executive recruitment headhunter by day (think placement of CEOs), who dabbles in a spot of daylight robbery – art theft – to help make ends meet in his ridiculously glossy-paged lifestyle. Married to a statuesque, blonde gallery owner (Synnøve Macody Lund), among his psychological grab bag of conditions, he has a massive contempt of his own life's trappings and constantly seeks more.
One of the joys in this film is there is no excess baggage. The plot is tight and well-paced and in this instance any foreshadowing of events is met with eager anticipation as Roger's circumstances spiral delightfully out of control. No sooner are dialogue gems dropped like, "… I keep a gun in every room of the house," than the audience knows it won't be too long before this nugget of information is made good on. Similarly, shortly after the opening credits we are given Roger's 'Rules of Burglary Engagement' if you will, all pretty much broken before the 100 minutes plays out.
As people invariably pass judgement on the book vs. film merits, I hadn't read the book prior so I can't comment on the quality of the adaptation. That said, I can't imagine much which has been omitted or adjusted. After speaking to a work colleague, I was informed the most non-Scandinavian element being Roger's name, is because in the novel he was an English ex-pat working in Oslo.
One advantage of not knowing the story before, or indeed not having a knowledge of Norwegian cinematic language and clichés (Bollywood waterfalls anyone?), even right up until the dénouement started its roller coaster descent I had no idea if Roger was going to live or die. Credit where it is due, if nothing else Roger has tenacity and bucket loads of it. He's a regular little Energiser Bunny who just keeps keeping on; after-all, during the course of the film he has a couple of very bad days.
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"Headhunter" IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1614989/
Running Time: 100 minutes
Language: Norwegian with English subtitles.
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