Headhunters is yet another foreign film that shows how it should be done, with suspense, cleverness and action as key components of this thriller that has you on the edge of your seat.
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Set in Norway, we meet the main character Roger Brown (Askel Hennie, above) early on in the piece as he is interviewing potential candidates to take over the role of CEO of ‘Pathfinder’. While we are led to believe he is purely a headhunter, we soon find out that this is not the case, as he has other methods to supplement his rich lifestyle with his wife Diana (Synnove Macody Lund).
The way this is introduced is quite funny with some clever humour implemented by director Morten Tyldum. We then find out Brown’s money making scheme as he robs the client he was just interviewing of a valuable painting located in his home. I thought this was very cleverly done and a genius idea in itself.
Brown is very skeptical that his wife will leave him for a more attractive and taller man, (Brown reminds us that he is 1.57m tall) and when Diana has her gallery opening we meet Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) who seems to already be very friendly with Diana. He coincidentally is a perfect candidate for the pathfinder job and also seems to own a very expensive painting. Without giving too much away, Brown goes after this painting and the movie starts to get pretty exciting from there.
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The following two thirds of the movie is packed with excitement, twists and turns. We see betrayal, near misses and great getaways as the story unfolds. The suspense is great as characters hide wherever they can including a very memorable scene that has you laughing and cringing at the same time.
There is also some graphic moments which add to the film, and along with it’s mixture of humour and cleverness make it a really good movie. I’m not sure if it’s because you are reading subtitles of the screen but scenes seem memorable and quick to process, which is important as the movie does take a few turns.
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Headhunters left me pleased with my movie experience and glad I went out and saw it. I always love movies that make me think and while it wasn’t overly complex there were a few pieces of the puzzle to put together to really click with what was happening and why. It was exciting and visually pleasing too, overall it was simply a great experience and continues the run of great foreign films I have seen lately. B+
