Headhunters (Hodejegerne), directed by Morten Tyldum (with one of the stranger filmographies of recent times, following up this banger with The Imitation Game and Passengers), was a smash hit in Norway when it was first released over a decade ago, becoming the highest grossing Norwegian film in history. It’s remained somewhat under the radar in the United States since then, despite being one of the best crime thrillers of the 2010s.
The protagonist is the amusingly named “Roger Brown”, one of Norway’s top executive recruiters who is 5’6″, lives in an expensive home and is married to a Scandinavian supermodel. On the surface, his life seems as perfect as he can hope for. Bubbling just underneath, Brown (played by Aksel Hennie, who looks like a more handsome version of Steve Buscemi) admits that he’s driven by a constant sense of insecurity and a deeply ingrained Napoleon complex. To fund his lavish lifestyle and to become the person he wants to be, he moonlights as an art thief. One day, he meets Clas Greve (Game of Thrones‘ Nicholaj Walder-Costau), a successful CEO looking for a new job. When Brown tries to steal one of Greve’s expensive paintings, things unravel quickly and he finds himself on the run.
After a sleek first act that sets up all the characters and the premise, the film moves at a breakneck speed for almost the entire second act as a good old-fashioned thriller that will leave you with your fists and buttocks tightly clenched. It is unmistakably a taut heist movie, full of intrigue and suspense because you as the viewer are in the exact same situation as Brown is, trying to figure out who is going after you, how they are doing it, and what they want. Tyldum makes sure that the lack of information is suspenseful rather than confusing, and you know exactly as much information as you’re supposed to know at each point in time. It’s incredibly well paced, and you can take breaths when you’re supposed to, and hold your breaths when you’re supposed to.
While Headhunters is one of the best “things unravel” movies, it’s also thematically well-rooted. Greve is everything that Brown is not – he’s tall, handsome, and confident. Brown is driven by greed and money and desire, and his reach forever exceeds his grasp. In some ways, this is like a much less lavish and profane Jordan Belfort. But the difference between Headhunters and Wolf of Wall Street is that Roger Brown could be any one of us. That’s the real trick of the movie, just how relatable it feels.
The tone of the film is superficially unassuming in the beginning, but you feel invested right away. And aside from the crime thriller aspect and the cat-and-mouse action and set pieces, Headhunters is also a genuine family drama involving Roger Brown and his wife’s disagreement over whether they want to have kids or not, the character motivations behind that, and how that breeds jealousy and distrust. At its heart, this is a movie about insecurity and fear and the road that can lead us down. Fear not only of those coming after you with guns, but the people in your life that you’re vulnerable to and the lengths that you’ll go for them. As Brown confesses, he’s been scared since the moment he first met her. For viewers of this film, the only thing you’ll have to fear is that you might never look at an empty toilet paper roll the same way again.
Now streaming on Tubi.
