The Simple Art Of Murder-The Norwegian-Danish Film Headhunters

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell  

Headhunters, Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnøve Macody Lund, 2011

Hey, aren’t those Scandinavian countries, you know Norway, Denmark, Sweden, maybe Finland on an off day supposed to be socially progressive, socially useful, laid back societies that everybody in the West throws up as an example, good or bad, of  what a society should like. Well, what is up lately with those ultra-violent Dragon Tattoo films and now this Norwegian-Danish thriller, Headhunters, where the blood and gore would make even lowly Hollywood B-film producers blush.        

Here is what made my hair stand on end quite a bit, made me glad I lived in a civilized “in your face, no questions asked” violent society rather than those hidden cesspool social democracies where not all is what it seems to be. Heck the film started out simply enough with our protagonist, one Roger Brown, a good Norwegian name, right, a big time headhunter, you know, a person who looks for talent for big corporations, tries to ween a prospect away from some company to fill a high-end spot in one of his clients’ businesses. But get this old Roger had what he thought, erroneously thought when the smoke finally cleared, was a high-living trophy wife, Diana, an art gallery owner, whom he has lavished with all she wanted. All of what he thought she wanted but which put him in the hole financially. So Roger and a techie confederate were reduced to a little off-hand art thief to pay the bills. Harmless stuff really. A Munch here, a Monet there, simple stuff.        

Not so simple though when one Clas, a prospect for a big client, and a former special forces kind of guy, came a calling on the frustrated Diana with whom he had an affair, an affair which Roger found out about, and which Clas had intended for him to find out about as part of a larger plot. See Clas was a techie himself, had developed transmitters for the company he was at, a company that in the age of globalization wanted to be bought up at a nice price by an American company. And so it started. Clas figured out that Roger was doing a little off-hand art thief and played his hand out that way. Told Diana that he had a Rueben left by his grandmother in her apartment. That got Roger’s juices flowing.

That got Roger’s interest up big time, no question, and he pulled the caper off without a hitch. But it also got him more holy hell than he could shake a stick at before the deal went down. Clas, via a transmitter put in his hair by a lover Roger had on the side, had him in his sights at all times, had his very different headhunter instincts working to kill Roger once Clas knew that Roger knew about the affair with his wife. Knew also that because of that wifely indiscretion Roger was not going to recommend him for that key job at the company he wanted to help take over that Roger had to take the big step-off.         

This is where the thing went awry, where the sedate calm normalcy of Norwegian society took a big PR hit. First Roger’s confederate was set up to be killed by Roger who had real versus his confederate’s blank bullets. Fleeing that scene Roger went to a hide-out where he tried to stash the alleged Rueben and where Clas tracked him down (and he wound up hiding in order to get away in very strange place best left unmentioned in mixed company. Clas killed the hide-out owner and left his vicious tracking dog for Roger to deal with, left him having to kill the dog. (Jesus is nothing sacred). Roger escaped but wound up in a ditch rescued by a neighbor of the hide-out owner and placed in a hospital. He tried to escape from the hospital but failed, was cornered by the cops, and was to be taken back to face murder charges for the killing of the hide-out guy and his own confederate.

On the trip back Clas, remember Clas, and remember that tracking device, rammed the police car with a truck. The cops were killed with plenty of blood showing all around, but Roger, figuring what the hell, switched clothes with one of the dead officers. He was starting to get into the idea of revenge after that episode especially after he tried to reach his ex-lover girl who was actually working with Clas. Getting back home he reconciled with Diana, figured out a fool-proof way to kill Clas, turned the play around and in a televised shoot-out killed the bugger (with an able assist by Diana) and lived happily ever after. Well that last part you knew was going to play out but damn all that blood and gore-whee! If you are going to Oslo watch your back, you heard it here first.