Seeking out the

5000 greatest films

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Headhunters
Hodejegerne


Directed by Morten Tyldum
Produced by Marianne Gray and Asle Vatn
Screenplay by Lars Gudmestad and Ulf Ryberg Based on the novel by Jo Nesbø
With: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund, Eivind Sander, and Julie R. Ølgaard
Cinematography: John Andreas Andersen
Editing: Vidar Flataukan
Music: Trond Bjerknes and Jeppe Kaas
Runtime: 100 min
Release Date: 26 August 2011
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Color: Color
Headhunters is a highly entertaining heist/man-on-the-run/chase film about a high-powered but insecure recruiter for big corporations who moonlights as an art thief to keep his wife in the high style he believes she requires.  To say you need to suspend your disbelief to get through the movie is an understatement; so much of what happens is totally preposterous. If the filmmakers had chosen to make certain cosmetic details a bit more believable--for example, when you shave your bloody head with a used razor by a river bank with no mirror you don’t come out with a perfectly smooth dome--then perhaps the holes in the narrative and defiance of certain laws of physics would not be as much of an issue.  Still, this is a fun movie, with an excellent cast.  It’s a Norwegian Coen Brothers movie.