Headhunters

No this is not a piece about the the tiny music venue off of Red River or even a porn starring Misty Rain or Bettina. Instead this is a review of a Norwegian thriller based off the book by Jo Nesbo. Typically when foreign films get alot of hype over here its usually well deserved because they know we lazy Americans dont like to read (subtitles or anything really). And we certainly wont pay ten bucks to do so; especially when on the right night we can pay the same amount to get a pair of fake C cups in our face for 5 minutes. I wouldn't know from personal experience but I have some buddies who have partaken from time to time. But beware of the hype machine, sometimes you get gems like The White Ribbon or in my opinion last year's best film A Separation and then you get stinkers like Nightwatch or any post Madonna Guy Ritchie film. I'm counting those as foreign because I cant understand a word of what they say. RocknRolla was decent however.

Headhunters comes pretty close to living up to the hype; and I only say this because it got a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. 90% is alot to live up to.The story starts off simple and intriguing enough. It's about Roger Brown, who is a 5'6" inch corporate headhunter who is actually really good at his job but feels the need to overcompensate for his lack of height by not owning a lifted truck with 32 inch tires but by stealing high end art and replacing them with forgeries. He steals art so that he can have all of the things that he believes men should want in life. He is living well above his means even with the thefts by owning this multi million dollar mansion, doing everything possible to please his supermodel esque wife, wearing top designer suits, and driving high end cars.  He cleverly uses the job interviews he conducts to see who owns nice art pieces and to do some reconnaissance work on his next job. At first, everything seems to be going great until his wife introduces him to Clas Greve, played by Game of Thrones's Jaime Lannister. Clas informs Roger's wife that he's inherited a pretty valuable German painting that his grandmother obtained in WWII and wants her to evaluate it for him. Well once she tells Roger that it's worth upwards of 100 million, it's game on! Roger of course sees this as an escape from his financial problems and proceeds to attempt to steal the painting. Little does he know that while attempting to steal the painting he is about to unravel a mystery that will leave you guessing and literally on the edge of your seat the entire movie.

The great thing about this movie is just when you think you have figured out the main twist, the story takes it up yet another notch; sometimes to borderline absurd levels but not quite crossing that line. It is well acted and the movie doesnt waste time with any overly sapping dramatic moments. Instead the story is written so well that you can get a feel for the relationships between the characters with subtle glances or uncomfortable silences. And not like the 30 minute long glances that Brad Pitt has with Claire Forlani in Meet Joe Black. That movie really is only 40 minutes long when edit out all of the longing stares. But as for Headhunters,  I give it a rating of pretty FRESH, so definitely go see it!