Headhunters (film)

Headhunters
Norwegian theatrical poster
Directed by	Morten Tyldum
Produced by	Marianne Gray Asle Vatn
Screenplay by	Lars Gudmestad Ulf Ryberg
Based on	Hodejegerne  by Jo Nesbø
Cinematography	John Andreas Andersen
Editing by	Vidar Flataukan
Release dates	August 26, 2011 (2011-08-26) (Norway)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Norway
Language	Norwegian
Budget	30 million NOK[1]
Box office	$15,391,296[2]

Headhunters (Norwegian: Hodejegerne) is a 2011 Norwegian action thriller film based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Jo Nesbø. The film was directed by Morten Tyldum and stars Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnøve Macody Lund. Hennie portrays the successful but insecure corporate recruiter Roger Brown who lives a double life as an art thief to fund his lavish lifestyle. He finds out that one of his job prospects is in possession of a valuable painting and sets out to steal it.

Released in Norway on 26 August 2011, Headhunters was a box office success, receiving positive reviews, and was nominated for multiple awards, including four Amanda Awards and a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The film is the highest-grossing Norwegian film of all time.^[3]

Plot

Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie), Norway's most successful headhunter, supports his lavish lifestyle by stealing paintings from his clients. His partner Ove (Eivind Sander) works at a surveillance company and deactivates security at the victims' homes. Roger's wife, Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund), a gallery owner, introduces him to Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), an executive who wants to work for Pathfinder, a GPS technologies company, for which Roger is recruiting. Roger becomes jealous of Diana's attraction to Clas, and, when Diana tells him that Clas owns a rare Rubens painting, Roger and Ove meet to work out details on stealing it. Roger manages to steal the painting from Clas' home, but he discovers Diana's phone beside Clas' bed.

The next day, Roger leaves for work but finds Ove in his car in his garage, apparently dead. Roger discovers a poison syringe in the car seat. He places Ove in the trunk and later dumps the body in a lake, but the water revives Ove, who didn't get a full dose of the poison. The two go to Ove's home, where Ove demands hospital attention. Roger refuses as he does not want the police involved. Ove pulls a gun and in a shoot-out Roger accidentally kills Ove, and takes his clothes as a disguise. When Roger exits, he sees Clas waiting outside. After a scuffle, Roger escapes to a farm, in Ove's car, tailed by Clas. Clas murders the farmer, but Roger successfully hides from him. Roger is bitten by Clas' dog, but he kills it and escapes, only to be involved in a car accident. Awakening in a hospital, Roger learns the police think he is Ove and suspect him in the farmer's murder. Roger is arrested after an escape attempt, but, as he is being driven away, Clas rams the car, in a stolen truck. Roger pretends to have died on impact and shaves his head, believing his wife planted location transmitters in his hair.

Roger turns to his former mistress, Lotte (Julie Ølgaard), for help, but she admits that she is working with Clas, explaining that he is trying to steal Pathfinder's technology. Lotte stabs Roger, who then shoots and kills her. Roger returns home, and Diana apologizes for her affair with Clas. The next morning, Roger goes to a morgue to retrieve his cut hair, while Diana contacts Clas, appearing to resume their affair. While cleaning Ove's cabin of evidence, Roger is confronted by Clas, who was able to track the location transmitters in the cut hair. Clas gloats that Diana has returned to him, but Roger reveals that she replaced his bullets with blanks. Ove's home security records Clas involved in a shootout, though Roger stays out of the picture. Roger arranges the evidence so it looks like Ove was the shooter, knowing the police investigation will ignore minor inconsistencies. Later, Roger and a visibly pregnant Diana are shown selling their house, and Roger returns to work.

Cast

• Aksel Hennie as Roger Brown
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Clas Greve
• Synnøve Macody Lund as Diana Brown
• Julie Ølgaard as Lotte
• Eivind Sander as Ove

Production and remake

The Swedish production company Yellow Bird acquired the film rights to Jo Nesbø's 2008 novel Headhunters in 2009.^[4] It was the first of Nesbø's novels to be turned into a film.^[5] The film was shot in and around Oslo on a budget of 30 million NOK over 40 days.^[1][6]

A Hollywood remake of Headhunters is planned, with the British journalist and screenwriter Sacha Gervasi writing the screenplay.^[7] The rights to the English-language remake were sold to the American film studio Summit Entertainment in 2011 while the Norwegian film was still in production.^[8]

In an episode broadcast in 2013 MythBusters tested the feasibility of the film's car accident scenario (a person in the back seat of a car surviving a 50 mph T-boning by a truck due to cushioning by heavy persons either side), concluding it was not.

Music

Tracks used in the movie include:^[9]

• "Weathervane" by Weathervane - over the end credits
• "Sleep Ferrari" published by Universal Publishing Production Music (no artist given)
• "Come Arround" [sic] by Goran Obad and Henrik Skarm

Release

The film was released in Norway on 26 August 2011^[10] and was seen by 104,000 Norwegian moviegoers in its opening weekend, making it the second best opening weekend in Norwegian history, after Max Manus.^[11] It was by far the most-watched domestic film of the year, with 557,086 tickets sold at the cinema, and the second most-watched including foreign films, only beaten by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.^[12]

Reception

Headhunters received very positive reviews. Based on 93 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 92% and "Certified Fresh" rating with an average score of 7.6 out of 10. The consensus reads, "Grisly, twisty, and darkly comic, Headhunters is an exhilaratingly oddball take on familiar thriller elements."^[13] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews", based on reviews from 26 critics.^[14]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three and a half stars out of four, praising the movie as "an argument for the kinds of thrillers I miss. It entertains with story elements, in which the scares evolve from human behavior." "Unlike too many thrillers that depend on stunts, special effects and the Queasy-Cam, this one devises a plot where it matters what happens. It's not all kinetic energy."^[15]

Accolades

Headhunters was the first Norwegian film to be nominated for a BAFTA (in the category Best Film Not in the English Language).^[16] The film was also nominated for four Amanda Awards: People's Amanda (audience vote), Best Actor, Best Direction and Best Visual Effects, but not for Best Norwegian Film, leading to criticism of the Amanda jury.^[17]

See also

• Scandinavian noir

References

External links

• Official website
• Headhunters at the Internet Movie Database
• Headhunters at Rotten Tomatoes