HeadHunter’s – Reviewed by Jonny T

Headhunter’s – Reviewed by Jonny T

Director:Morten Tyldum

Writers:Lars Gudmestad, Jo Nesbø (novel)

Stars: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

“An accomplished head-hunter risks everything to obtain a valuable painting owned by a former mercenary.”



Hello Folks,

Jonny T here with my review of Jo Nesbo’s Head-hunter’s, Now I had seen the poster around for this and thought it looked a bit shit to be honest so never bothered with it until a friend of mine said he had watched it and how good it actually was, so I was passing a Blockbuster that is closing down and decided of course to nip in and see what bargains I could get, and there on the shelf for £3 was Head-hunter’s so I snatched it up.
It tells the basic story of an art thief that poses as a corporate head-hunter to see if he can find out a little about his future employees (who never have a chance of a real job) and most importantly see what the know about art but even more important than that if they actually own any valuable and in his mind art he can steal and sell, This is set up in a great scene near the beginning of the movie where we see him conducting an interview in a very relaxed manner and asking questions such as “Are you married? Do you have children? Are they in school? Does your wife also work? Do you have a dog?” Now all the questions relate of course to the vacancy of the house during the daytime and more importantly the “do you have a dog?” question so he doesn’t get attacked, this question in particular leads to a great scene later in the movie of which I won’t spoil, The guy answers yes to all the questions then goes on to tell him that what he knows about art and he owns a very valuable painting himself, mistake!



The Man then tells him he has no chance of getting the job, obviously he looks shocked but again it is only a ploy, he tells him to return the next day at 12 o’clock to meet the director therefore having all the details and knowing he will be out the art theft is on, we then see how he pulls it off with the help of a security expert who can gain access remotely to peoples alarm systems and deactivate them at will, we then see him pulling off the theft by reproducing the exact painting in the form of a large exact replica photocopy, Breaking into the house, cutting out the painting and replacing it with the copy, job done!

The main man in question is Roger Brown played brilliantly by Aksel Hennie , At first you see him and his wife living the multi-millionaire lifestyle with his wife oblivious to what he really does for a living and her constantly wanting to start a family, life’s all good, that is until he picks on the wrong guy Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Clas Greve ) , from this moment forward the film twists and turns quicker and more times than a giant python chasing a pygmy!

So without revealing too much, All is not as perfect as it seems and it seems as with all criminals they have gotten away with it for so long that it’s bound to catch them up, the story takes on the basic premise then of the art thief being hunted down by the guy that wants to kill him and this man is one mean motherfucker as he discovers when he looks into his background and his mercenary secret service tracking device company, one tiny spoiler, the guy somehow manages to track him for a hell of a lot of the time and you are constantly wondering how the hell he is doing it and the reveal is brilliant, now on to the dog, the guy who is chasing him as one big ugly scary dog so he gets chased from cabin to cabin with the dog sniffing him out at every turn, this leads to a scene where he is in the toilet cabin, now I won’t say what happens apart from “HOLY SHIT!!” and by that I mean litteraly, it’s one hell of a stomach churning gross scene almost so bad you can smell it, it really does have to be seen to be believed.



So in Summing up, if you fancy a change from Horror you can’t really do much better than this, it does have its’ violent bits, gross bits, extremely clever twists and turns that keeps you guessing right up to the very last frame, Just under 90 minutes long and so many great scenes it never drags for a moment.
Go check it out!
8/10
Jonny T.