Headhunters

When The Imitation Game was released I had never heard of Morten Tyldum. And why not? He had never made an English-language film before. But he's a big deal in his home country of Norway, where he helmed the highest-grossing picture in that nation's history, Headhunters, which I watched last night.

Tyldum was obviously raised on Hollywood films, because Headhunters is right out of the Hollywood playbook. A little Hitchcock, a little Scorsese, a little Peckinpah, and a lot of violence, Headhunters, adapted from a novel by the popular Scandinavian author Jo Nesbo, is a thrilling entertainment.

The story is told from the point of view of Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie), a successful corporate headhunters. He has a very lavish lifestyle, though, and a beautiful wife (Synnøve Macody Lund) that he thinks he needs to shower with gifts. So he moonlights, but not as a bartender or pizza delivery guy, but as an art thief. He has a guy in the home alarm business, and they team up to steal art and replace it with reproductions so they may never notice the switch.

Of course this will all go horribly wrong, and this happens when he tangles with Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The two will end up in a dance of death that leaves a long body trail, including a dog's and a pair of obese twin policeman.

What Tyldum, his screenwriters, and Hennie do so well is make us change our minds about the lead character. Brown is the kind of guy you'd like to punch in the face--arrogant, supercilious, in short, a real prick, and that's even before you consider he's a thief. But as his struggles mount--at one point he is running through the woods, caked in shit, your opinion of him starts to change. As he grows, you actually start to root for him.

The film works on almost levels. It's a clever thriller (pay attention to what gun is used where) and a gentle love story. Lund makes a nice debut; she has a strange resume--model and film critic. Coster-Waldau, best know for playing the evil Jamie Lannister on Game of Thrones, is a character that also makes a change, or at least our perception of him does.

As I said, there are a few plot holes. Some of them are whisked away in a clever manner, some are not addressed, such as does everyone in Oslo use the same home alarm company?. Brown also survives a hellish auto accident that Mythbusters proved he could have not. But hey, it's a movie.

There is a Hollywood remake in the works, and this makes perfect sense. But I bet they screw it up.