Film Review: Headhunters

Director: Morten Tyldum

Adapted from the best selling book by Jo Nesbo and like all popular Scandanavian novels it was adapted to the big screen in it's native language first. This is the Norwegian version, meaning subtitles, and Hollywood as already announced an English speaking remake to be released in 2014 sometime with the rumour being that Roger Brown will be played by Mark Wahlberg. Now that sounds like literally the worst idea of all time to me and even more so after I watched this movie. It's not perfect but it is still very good and will only improve when a remake is finally released.

Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie)

Roger Brown (coolly played by Askel Hennie) is a suave and hugely successful businessman, as demonstrated at the beginning of the movie when he mets an applicant for a director's job, he has personal issues regarding his height and the fact his wife is a lot more attractive than he is. On the side from his recruitment business, he steals art paintings and replaces them with forgeries in people's homes so he can sell them on the black market to help pay for his expensive home, that he doesn't like, and his wifes new art gallery. Although he seems to have met his match when he mets Clas Greve who appears to be the perfect candidate for a role but also has an original Rubens painting potentially worth millions.

The three main characters played by Hennie, Coster Waldau and Synnøve Macody Lund (Diana Brown) are all perfectly cast in their roles. Continuing with the theme of Roger Brown doing the narration from his own point of view was certainly the correct one as it added a lot to the book. A few scenes which I felt were quite key were cut out of the movie but this is inevitable when cutting a book down into a film. I was delightfully looking forward to scenes such as the outdoor toilet near the cabin in the woods and the crash with the police car, I was certainly not disappointed.

Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) with his attack dog 

The main disappointment for me is that the character of Clas Greve is under-used, certain scenes where he is at his best are left out of the film. This leaves him as less of a person and makes him seem like a man without any emotion to presumably make him seem more threatening and scary to the watcher. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was very good as Clas Greve so it's a shame he wasn't fully utilised.

But the book itself is a thrill ride with twists and turns at every corner which are all fully played out in the film. I would highly recommend reading the book first but it certainly isn't crucial. The film does have a very Norwegian feel to it, aside from just the subtitles, especially when it comes to the cinematography which again should be applauded. After seeing the film, think about the house Roger Brown lives in and tell me you don't want to live there? Just not sure I'd steal paintings to do so!

3.5/4 Great adaptation that is thrilling and has clever twists from start to finish