Jamie Turner80
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joined Jul 2009
Headhunters
America, 2011
directed by: Steven Spielberg
screenplay: Lars Gudmestad, Ulf Ryberg
starring: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnove Macody Lund
This is a thriller of the Scandinavian variety, adapted from a novel. If you have the Millennium Trilogy in mind, you are on the right track, though there are some notable differences: Headhunters is a pure thriller without a heavy political backdrop (though that doesn't mean it lacks social subtext), the original novel is somewhat of a lesser quality work, yet the film doesn't suffer much for it, and the visual and production aspects actually surpass those of the trilogy. As a specific phenomenon, it is worth noting that this is the second most-watched Norwegian film of all time and one of the rare movies picked up for an American remake even before its premiere.
The protagonist is Roger, who, as he describes himself, is a corporate headhunter—essentially an employee in the recruitment industry, one of those flashy phenomena of the modern yuppie world. He is quite tall, a fact repeated in the narration at the beginning and end, and not without reason, as it feeds into his insecurities. He is married to Diana, a typical Scandinavian beauty whose years have granted her integrity and sophistication. Because of this, Roger fears she is out of his league, and to keep her, he feels he must be wealthy. His hobby is highly illegal and incredibly lucrative: he steals fine art and replaces them with decent reproductions. The two live in a suburban villa and have no children, though she pressures him for them—you know how it goes. She also has a job that functions more as a hobby: she owns an art gallery. It is precisely at the opening of this gallery that Roger meets Clas, Diana's friend and a potential client. The first impression is unsettling: Clas and Diana look much more like a cohesive couple than Roger and Diana do. Roger pursues him with shark-like instinct to convince him to become a client and refer him to the firm that employs specialists of his profile—experts in electronic military and police equipment. When Diana mentions that Clas owns an original Rubens, Roger's interest spikes, despite everything suggesting he should stay far away from Clas; the man has a career as a special forces operative and a headhunter, this time hunting terrorists. Once Roger finds Diana's cell phone in Clas's apartment during a heist, and discovers his seemingly dead accomplice in the garage, a chase through rural Norway begins.
This is where the film's true strengths emerge. For whatever reason, Scandinavians don't throw money away on CGI, kung-fu violence, or mindless shootouts in expensive studios, so they are forced to commit to cheaper solutions like plot and character. The story is packed with unexpected twists to the point where it is difficult to follow everything, infused with brilliantly conceived action where Roger uses his own flaws as advantages, hiding in every possible—and impossible—location (a Polish toilet is one such spot, and arguably one of the most brilliant moments). Meanwhile, Clas pursues him using military expertise and high-end gear. What drives the characters are believable motivations: Roger's flight becomes a matter of life and death, Clas hunts him to protect his investment, Diana has a perfectly clear motive for an affair with Clas, and the fourth member of this romantic quartet, Lotte, is opportunistic to the extreme. Even the entire gallery of episodic characters serves not just as plot devices, but as living, breathing people. This "formula without a formula" works perfectly until the very end, when it unravels in a rushed and somewhat predictable way, though that is a flaw of the original novel that the film failed to fully rectify. From a production standpoint, the film is attractive enough to sit alongside more expensive European productions, aided significantly by the location shooting. Aksel Hennie is absolutely brilliant; the rest of the cast is solid.
Watching this film for the first time, I felt somewhat cheated; I didn't quite know where the story was heading, and I only partially managed to keep up with the plot. Not that it matters; it is simply the atmosphere of the film: not a single character knows what the others are planning, a format that works exceptionally well in English thrillers. When I watched it a second time in fits and starts, gaps in the logic appeared that were large enough to house a small state, which is again a shortcoming of the novel: if the twists are too unexpected and frequent, they cannot remain entirely logical. However, the film's rapid pace masks these flaws sufficiently. Just think of the early works of Guy Ritchie and his frantic pacing. A good tale of deception easily deceives the viewer, much like the works of David Mamet. Headhunters sits somewhere in between: it possesses both a compelling story and dizzying momentum, and the deception it performs is quite pleasant.
One can only hope that this remake maintains enough of an indie spirit and stays true to its original roots, though I find the odds to be rather slim. Hollywood will almost certainly saturate it with excessive action sequences and formulaic tropes; it is simply standard practice for them. While such additions occasionally served to mask a lack of budget or spectacle in other films, there is absolutely no functional need for it here.
