Headhunters movie rating
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In hindsight, stealing a priceless work of art from an ex-military officer who developed a hugely successful tracking system probably wasn’t the smartest of ideas, but it’s a nice conceit that pushes the movie into action. And, just as routinely, Brown’s carefully laid plans begin to fall massively apart – when he discovers that he can’t trust his colleague, or that his marriage might not be as stable as he thought, or when the owner of the painting shows up looking pretty tough. Naturally, Brown discovers that somebody has an old painting worth enough money to allow the eponymous character to retire to a life of comfort and security. There’s something almost endearing in Brown’s ability to take obscene amounts of punishment. As such, we don’t mind too much when he gets thrown off a cliff or smothered under an outhouse, but we also want to see the little guy pull through. He lives an existence he openly admits to hating, but because he seems to genuinely care about his wife, even as he cheats on her at every possible opportunity. While he is incredibly rude and self-centred, there’s something almost pitiable about his obsession with his height, or his own belief that he has nothing to offer his wife except a lavish lifestyle and an over-flowing bank account. We don’t like Brown, but we do understand him, and we accept his honesty about himself. It’s a fine line to walk, and Hennie and the script do a fine job. The fact that the script and the character are candid about his flaws helps us to warm to him, even as he proves a completely shifty and untrustworthy (and surprisingly cowardly) protagonist.
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Aksel Hennie plays Roger Brown, and manages to make him oddly relatable, even if he is completely shallow and transparent. Still, most second jobs don’t involved the theft of antique and intensely valuable works of art that are ferried out of the country and sold for hugesums of money. The film works best as a grim black comedy, following the trials and tribulations of a sleazy recruitment officer who supports his lifestyle by taking a second job. (And even then, there’s a considerable divide between Norway and Sweden.) I have to admit, making the comparison feels just a bit lazy, as Headhunters is definitely a very different movie experience – and I mean that in a good way. However, that’s about all that connects these two pieces of entertainment, save geography. The adaptation itself is brought to the screen by the same company, Yellow Bird. Even before the movie entered development, the author found himself fighting off comparisons to Stieg Larsson, the author of that iconic series. It’s difficult to read anything about the film that doesn’t make some sort of reference to the break-out Scandinavian film franchise of the past decade, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.