HEADHUNTERS/ HODEJEGERNE
Norway, 2011, 96 minutes, Colour.
Aksel Hennie, Synnove Macody Lund, Nikolai Coster -Waldau, Elvin Sander, Julie R. Olgard, Valentina Alexeeva.
Directed by Morten Tyldum.
Headhunters is a novel by Jo Nesbo whose crime stories are beginning to be more prominent on bookshop shelves. This film might encourage this interest.
With its Norwegian settings, business and fraud plot, many audiences with be thinking of Stig Larsson and his Millennium series. However, the storytelling here is more direct, leaving the complications and twists until the end. In fact, the screenplay is exemplary in taking the audience step by step along the plot, each episode ending with a surprise or a thread that needs development – which does follow. This provides continued interest and curiosity and for some surprises.
During the credits, the central character, Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) , explains (and the films shows) the steps needed for an art thief to go into a house and substitute a fake work of art for the real thing (and then sell it on the black market). This is the introduction to Roger, who comments on his short stature and his statuesque blonde wife, his good fortune (built on the profits from stealing) and his job as a headhunter, interviewing prospective executives for companies.
When a Danish businessman, Clas Greve (Nicolaj Coster- Waldau)comes from Holland and a prestigious company there to visist his wife’s gallery, Roger interviews him for his job. Greve claims to have a lost Rubens in his apartment. When Roger cases the apartment, he finds his wife’s mobile phone and subsequently rejects Greve’s application for the job.
The tone changes when the arrangements for selling the painting are upset. Some murders ensue and Roger is found under suspicion and attempting to escape the police. Of course, Greve is behind the pursuit and we learn why. After that, it is cat and mouse – and an ending which we may not have anticipated.
A caution for sensitive audiences. There is a vivid sequence in an outhouse when Roger tries to elude his pursuer. It may be too realistic for some, even though it is a strong point in the plot. There is also a car accident with some graphic close-ups of injured bodies.
But, on the whole, Headhunters is well-plotted, written and acted, a satisfying thriller of its kind.
1. The status of thrillers from Norway and Scandinavian countries? The novels of Jo Nesbo? Adaptation?
2. The title, the focus on Roger Brown and his work?
3. The Oslo settings, the world of big business and international connections, lavish homes, offices? The art world? The countryside, old houses and sheds? The mountains, the highways, the lakes? The musical score?
4. Roger Brown, introducing himself, short stature, ambitions, money, seven years married, providing lavishly for his wife, his role as a headhunter, his personality, encountering people, using them, the interview with Lander and manipulating his interviews? His home life, his wife wanting the child, his refusal? The sexual encounter with Lotte and trying to break from her? The sequences of his substituting the pictures, from Lander’s house while he was away, taking the Rubens? His colleague, the manipulation of security systems, the friend driving the paintings to go to Gotheberg? The money, dividing it up? The risks? Seeing Roger in his disguise and in action?
5. The arrival of Clas Greve? His manner? Retired, his aunt’s house, inheriting, redecoration, the Rubens picture? His previous employment – and his pen? The headhunting interviews? With the company, his doing well? The irony of Roger at his house, for the Rubens, discovering his wife having an affair, the mobile phone? His hostility towards Greve?
6. The stealing of the picture, Roger and Ove and his rival, the encounter with his security agent, the Russian girlfriend, the cameras and the colleagues watching? Finding his friend on the seat of his car, the syringe, putting them in the boot, taking him home, drinking the milk, the confrontation with the guns, his friend dead?
7. Roger, taking the picture, going to the country house, parking the car, trying to hide the picture? Great arriving? Roger hiding in the toilet, surviving? Getting out, finding the owner of the house dead, driving, the pursuit by the dog,, taking the tractor and impaling the dog, the crash? In hospital, the police guards, the arrival of the inspector, his trying to escape, in the car, the story of the local truck, the policeman trying to stop it, the crash, the car over the cliff, the deaths, Roger surviving, pretending to be dead when Greve was searching?
8. Changing identity with the policeman, going to see Lotte, her phoning Greve, the revelation of the true story, the affair, her wanting out, her putting the traces in his hair? Her trying to stab him, his shooting her?
9. Contact with Diana, her confessing the affair, not putting the magnets in his hair, the possibility for a child? Her helping him in the ultimate confrontation?
10. Roger shaving his head, hiding the hairs, wanting to recover them, disguise, going to the autopsy room, on the train, the setup in the house? Greve tracking him down through the hair? The talk, the threats, the truth about Greve in the bankruptcy of his firm, wanting the new job, to steal the technical information?
11. Roger using his wits, the guns, Diana removing the bullets, the death of Greve?
12. The cynical ending – Roger, some personal reformation, Diana pregnant? Back at his job, as if he had been travelling? Getting the position to capital lander?
13. The police, the solution, the media, the investigator and his reputation?
