Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Headhunters

If big named-stars, massive special effects, and the English language aren’t your thing (See: The Avengers, opening up this weekend in case you are being born this weekend), and you crave the violence, nudity, and other material deemed R-Rated, then Headhunters is absolutely your movie.

A film from Norway, with subtitles, and no actor you’ve ever heard of (though Nikolaj Coster-Waldau looks remarkably like Josh Holloway), is a most mesmerizing and memorable movie. Roger Brown is a powerful headhunter with a penchant for stealing art in order to make money to satisfy the lavish life he has created for himself and his absurdly gorgeous tall blonde wife. He is also short, and has some self esteem issues.

His business, personal, and clandestine lives collide, however, in the form of Clas Greve (Norwegian Josh Holloway), a tall, attractive businessman from Netherlands, who has he eye on Brown’s blonde wife Diana, and is also in possession of a particularly expensive piece of art.

The conflicted and flawed Brown, powerful in his office chair working as a very reputable headhunter, but insecure when standing next to his wife, cannot help himself but to seek out this multi-million dollar piece of art that would also embarrass who he sees as his new found rival.

What seems a bit of a caper starring a somewhat retched creature acting out of misguided love, evolves quickly into something bigger and surprising. A cat-and-mouse ensues, one filled with blood and death, sex and nudity, and a couple particularly cringe-inducing scenes that dare not be named and would rarely be shown in American theatres.

The subtitles occasionally give away some of the humour in the film, but there are plenty of absurdly funny shots that somehow fit well in an intense thriller. Brown is no James Bond to be sure, so his reactions to packing heat, dealing with dead bodies, and generally trying to figure out what to do with his strange self are at times, at best, ridiculous.

He does grow, however, as Brown becomes a very interesting characters, at once despised for being childish and selfish, and later sympathetic and lost, and surely penitent after a few select incidents.

There is nothing comparable in American cinemas, and Headhunters truly shouldn’t be compared to anything else. It is a very adult action film that offers a few laughs, more winces, and plenty of suspense.
[star v=4]