Title: Headhunters

Opens: April 27, 2012

Bearing a resemblance to Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium Trilogy” at least so far as language family is concerned, “Headhunters” is the best Norwegian thriller to come to our shores in years and among the most exciting psychological dramas an American audience will be treated to in quite a while. The acting is outrageously good, the plot twists come to us at a furious pace, the music on the soundtrack is spot-on and perhaps not even needed since the gore that shocks us every now and then is scary enough without it. “Headhunters” has elements of horror, detective story, nourish comedy, all in the service of a sophisticated tale of a handsome but short corporate recruitment officer with a penchant for fine art.

Given the house owned by Robert Brown (Aksel Hennie) and his beautiful wife Diana (Synnøve Macody Lund) which could easily fit some page of Architectural Digest, and the fact that Oslo is Europe’s most expensive city, we wonder how Roger’s paychecks from employment as a corporate headhunter could pay the bills. And don’t forget his smashing suits and the jewelry he regularly bestows on his wife, a woman who is a head taller than Roger, the kind of woman that Rog hasn’t the self-confidence to think he can keep this person in his arms unless he gives her every material good he cannot afford—including his Lexus automobile. We are not surprised to discover from the opening scenes that Herr Brown is an art thief, one who meticulously plans not only an almost foolproof way to sneak into the houses of collectors, substitute copies after removing the canvas from the frames, and making off with an authentic Rubens or other artworks du jour. He has the help of Ove Kikerud (Elvind Sander), a security officer who appears to control every alarm system of the community’s upper class.

Complications develop when he meets the strikingly handsome Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Despite Roger’s suspicion that Greve has an eye for Diana which the gorgeous woman reciprocates, he invites him to apply for a top job at Pathfinder. Clas Greve has a military background involving tiny gadgets that can track people anywhere provided that one can attach such a trinket to the enemy’s hair or clothing. Greve, who owns the Rubens that could allow Roger to pay his mortgage if successfully heisted, is no easy victim and becomes, in fact, a headhunter in the more literal sense than Roger.

Scenes of bloody gore abound, but the one that will have some in the audience turning away does not involve shootings, stabbings, even the bites of one of the most ferocious dogs in cinema history. Morten Tyldum, who directs a movie propelled by the intricate architecture of Lars Guidmestad and Ulf Ryberg’s screenplay (based on a novel by Jo Nesbø) finds Roger hiding from the man who is tracking him by immersing himself wholly into a bucket of feces in a rural outhouse.

We come away from this taut, edge-of-the-seat thriller-cum-black comedy with the view that the higher you go, the more risks you take. In this case, a smart-looking fellow in competition with one whose looks surpass even those of Brad Pitt, must go through hoops not so much to meet the demands of a corporation but simply to remain alive. Aksel Hennie, a popular Norwegian actor, anchors the thriller as a man who is shot at, stripped naked, arrested, injured when the car he is in is totally destroyed by a huge truck, shaved bald, and worst of all covered in poop from head to toe. It would be difficult to conceive of a performer who could do better, though one has to guess that an American version of this film might be in the works with…Brad Pitt? Aaron Eckhart? Daniel Craig?

Rated R. 100 minutes © 2012 by Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online

Overall – A-