Review No.64: Headhunters

We journey now to Scandinavia which in the couple of years has produced some of the most talked about TV programmes as well as the world-renowned Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Another popular Scandinavian is Norwegian Jo Nesbo whose books have sold millions of which the first to be adapted his the brilliant Headhunters. Set in Oslo, Headhunters focuses on Aksel Hennie's Roger Brown who believes he is too small and ugly to satisfy his beautiful wife so has to keep buying her things such as a large modern house as well as expensive jewellery and money to improve her art gallery. Though Roger has a well-paid job as a head-hunter this still isn't enough to pay the bills so he makes a side-line in stealing pieces of art and replacing them with reproductions which he does with an acquaintance who works for a security firm who switches off the alarms when Roger is in the house. Roger uses his role as a headhunter to scope out information about Norway's wealthy elite who are the owners of these paintings so when his wife introduces him to Clas Greve, who has inherited a famous rare painting from his grandmother, he feels he must try to recruit him straight away. However Clas Greve is no push-over played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, best known to the rest of us as Jaime Lanister from Game of Thrones, he is a former military man whose security firm past means he his always alert. After the first 30 minutes you think you know where the film is leading however during the robbery Roger makes a discovery that changes everything and from there the film really picks up the pace.

To say any more about Headhunters would be detrimental to your enjoyment of it and part of the reason I enjoyed this film so much was because of the element of surprise. From the off-set Morten Tyldum's film was slick and stylish while Aksel Hennie's voice-over introduced us to a man who compensated for his lack of physical stature by pleasing his beautiful wife and stealing valuable works of art. This is a man who is obsessed with appearance from his house down to his locks of blonde hair which do play a key part throughout the film and give the title a double meaning. Hennie is brilliant in the lead role making you route for a man who is both a thief and an adulterer mainly because he is painted as a victim of circumstance. Coster-Waldau is also a brilliant antagonist whereas Brown is small and nervous this man is tall and confident with a certain swagger you can only pull off with being that good-looking. As well as being packed full of wild-action the film is both funny and at times touching when dealing with the true feelings that Roger's wife Diana has for him. For me this is right up there with the recent Scandinavian classics such as The Killing on TV and the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo films as Headhunters gave me the same feeling I had as I did when I first saw Noomi Rapace on the big screen. A clever ending to a film ties together some of the earlier points made by the script and I believe most of the audience left happy as will you when you track down this film on DVD trust me you won't be disappointed.

Verdict: A cracking action film that is also funny, clever and sweet with two breath-taking performances and some great set pieces. For me the film of the year so far so it gets 9/10