by Morten Tyldum with Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
The success of the Millennium trilogy gave Scandinavian writers and directors a big boost, and it was just a matter of time before somebody made a movie from one of Jo Nesbo’s Norwegian stories.
Publicized as the new ‘Girl with the dragon tattoo’, although there is no protagonist girl nor dragon tattoo, or as the Norwegian counterattack to Millennium, Headhunters is an interesting and surprising film about interesting and surprising characters.
The whole movie revolves around Roger, a headhunter with the hobby of stealing pricey and much valued paintings, whose life gets sucked into a downward spiral of events that will eventually lead him to choose between life and death.
The plot is full of twists, as well as sudden deaths and gory scenes, but it never crosses the line between thriller and horror, allowing itself not to be taken too seriously, thanks to many dark jokes and references (yes, also to the Millennium trilogy), and giving the public the feeling that there is always an emergency exit somewhere near.
As bad as things are they will always get worse, or at least they might, but in Roger’s case he seems always capable to handle even the most shocking and messed up coincidence, cleverly adjusting himself through a series of unfortunate events for which he has no one to blame for. That’s because the whole story is an allegory of life itself, with all its unpredictable turns and rationally unexplainable events, but the character of Roger is also a metaphor of how shallow people are and how everyone always yearn for something or someone just because they need to establish their social status. So if you are not tall enough for the standards you need a taller-than-thou girlfriend, if your job is not glamorous enough you need a big car to compensate, if your taste is not refined enough than you need expensive clothes and pieces of art to overcompensate.
What’s more important then? To feel at ease with ourselves or to please other people’s expectations?
Get ready for the imminent American remake. What a surprise!
