Headhunter

The link to prime video takes you to a different movie by the same name

Quite enjoyable but the plot sags badly in places. Good cast and filming but wouldn't watch it again. Not in the same class as The Snowman the only other Nesbo based film I've seen

Very enjoyable film. Even better after checking that it wasn't based on Jo Nesbo's 'Headhunters.' As it bore no relation to the book 😁and was the reason I started watching.

Suitably intriguing story about cold fish Martin, star freelance headhunter, getting embroiled in risky business with troubled magnate N.F. Sieger and family.

Martin has family trouble of his own, his son being seriously ill. As everybody knows, families in this type of movie, exist only as leverage.

The photography is as cold as an industrialist heart. Dark, dismay and desolate, with sparks of redemption.

It's watchable in the original Danish with subtitles, since the dialogue is as sparse as luscious vegetation in Denmark during winter.

Martin Vinge is an accomplished recruiter of high-profile business talent, a man who thrives on corporate cut and thrust. Less successful as the estranged father of a seriously ill son, and carrying regret from his time as an investigative journalist and an incident involving a politician, he faces his biggest test yet when embroiled in the dynastic politics of a large shipping company.

Writer/director Rumie Hammerich invests this tale with Shakespearean gravitas. with Martin ostensibly in the employ of Lear-like elder Sieger, but menaced by his Iago-esque son Daniel. The chrome and steel surfaces of the offices shine and the Ikea domestic interiors are all hard edges, giving the film a David Fincher look while also heightening the cold, amoral shenanigans of the players. Martin's weak point is his son, and he plays a precarious balancing game in selling out to get his son the private medical care he needs, while simultaneously going after the truth of the story that his deep moral core compels him to uncover.

Lars Mikkelsen as Martin Vinge is brooding and conflicted. His one connection is journalist Nina (Charlotte Munck), unhappily married, compromised and flawed, as if to say Martin could only be attracted to a female version of himself. Except she is a decent parent. Mikkelsen's performance is perfect, always keeping things just below the surface so that we go along with Martin on his journey without ever truly getting to know why he embraces the contradictions of his undertaking so fully. There are some satisfying twists along the way, and moments of droll humour. Martin entering a room where only the women remain, and their synchronized pointing to the elevator, is a visual delight. In fact, the visual sheen of the whole film is rapturous, most reminiscent of Fincher's The Game.

This is a high quality thriller that exhibits judicious economy and steady pacing. It is the film Michael Clayton wanted to be. Mature, thoughtful filmmaking with a woody Scandinavian scent.