Ah, the Scandinavians. Industrious, pragmatic, neutral, putting the common man before the machine. It's a pretty picture, no? "Headhunters" sets to break the stereotypes and show that the dark underbelly of the world can sometimes rise to such great heights that even amongst the happiest people in the world the mighty Dollar still reigns supreme--even trumping human life.
Based on the novel by Jo Nesbo, Morten Tyldum's Norwegian crime thriller centers on a headhunter named Roger Brown whose duty it is to find the cream of the crop for an ultra-powerful tech company. Standing at 5'6", the admittedly overcompensating Roger lives in an enormous--if terribly ugly--house, dresses whip-smart, and keeps a stunning wife on his arm. His insecurities run deep, but his lavish lifestyle and an acidic silver tongue have built him a career based on reputation. Reputation is everything, reputation is key.
Crippled with debt, Roger affords his luxuries and buys his wife with money collected from his other interesting hobby: art thievery. Having a knack for spotting the real deal, he and his scummy associate, Ove, make a small fortune swapping works of precious art with replicas. But when Roger nabs an original and long lost Rubens from the wrong man, a super smart ex-mercenary and former competitor from the monolith HOTE named Clas Greve, he finds his own head is now the one being hunted.
This is visceral, bloody, action-packed movie, made all the better by being built upon an interesting and original premise. I have a lot of problems with the film and there are holes in the plot big enough to drive a semi truck through, but a lot of credit is owed to this movie for hooking the audience and not letting them go. Roger is played by Aksel Hennie who looks remarkably similar to a younger Willem Dafoe. In a film so focused on guns, car crashes, and sleekly dressed men doing inhuman feats, Hennie brings the heart where I didn't think it could be found, and keeps the story rooted somewhere in the distant reaches of reality.
Where the film goes astray is in its big reveal. We spend over an hour watching Roger being chased around the country, seemingly over a stolen painting, and when we finally find out what all the violence is really about it turns out to be far more trivial and a bit of a let down. I'm not sure if this is really a spoiler, but you've been pseudo warned: it's about a job. That well-worn concept of the evil corporation allowing human casualties for human gain gets yet another face here. I assume the idea is supposed to scare the common man like myself, but I always imagine faceless men in suits and some sort of possessed skyscraper out to get me. Buildings are not very scary, nor do I really care.
I also don't really like how well Roger succeeds at eluding a person made out to be extremely dangerous and well-trained. After all, the man is 5'6" and not terribly imposing. He works in an office and his adventurous second job only involves him being stealthy. I love a good film about what a person will do in order to survive--it's one of my interests in my own writing--but the concept of the film doesn't really allow any believability in Roger surviving. What skills could he possibly have which would allow him to evade a supersoldier like Clas? The man doesn't even own a gun.
The film is definitely a step above most of the rest, but it also leaves some questions unanswered, such as how Clas new that Roger was an art thief, why HOTE only put one man on the job to kill Roger, and why the hunt didn't continue after things didn't go according to plan. There is also a silly subplot about Roger not wanting to give his wife a child (part of that "heart" I was talking about earlier) which took up far too much time.
Although it was a mixed bag, I think "Headhunters" is an intelligent success. Watch it hard enough to follow along, but don't watch too hard or you might just find yourself agreeing with me.
2.5/4
No comments:
Post a Comment