For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Headhunters
The Impression:
Morton Tyldum, from my scant research, is a well respected,
even game-changing director in Norway. Here he adapts a book
by Jo Nesbo, a beloved crime writer, and the focus of a
possible adaptation by Martin Scorsese. Could be
interesting.
The Reality:
Headhunters has two weak points: the beginning and
the end. If one was to see only the first five minutes and
the last five minutes of this decidedly dark, intelligent,
thriller, they would think that Jo Nesbo was Elmore Leonard
and that the film could take place on the sandy beaches of
Miami. Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is a renowned corporate
headhunter financially over his head, who provides for the
lavish lifestyle he’s learned to love by stealing art prints
from potential clients. Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau)
is a reformed mercenary turned millionaire who saunters in
to Brown’s life with an original Reuben painting and yen for
his wife and turns everything, violently upside down. The
story of Roger Brown isn’t the story of flashy crime and
beautiful women (though both pop up in the film) but instead
a smaller story about a self-conscious man who lands himself
in a situation that quickly spirals out of control. Tyldum
has managed to take the crime thriller and imbue it with
some emotional charge, but in the opening and closing
moments the film suffers tonally. For the majority of its
running time the film is a violent spiral of darkness,
enjoyably so, but to get to this one must look past the
jaunty "caper" music of the first two minutes and turn the
film off when it starts again. What lies between is a strong
bit of genre-filmmaking.
The Lesson:
Somehow I blame the studios for the four minutes of this
film I didn’t love.
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