Heads up for Nesbø

Film review

John Smistad
Olympia, Wash.

Hunting for a not-by-the-numbers thriller? Headhunters (Hodejegerne, 2011) is the movie for you.

Leave it to those crafty Norwegians to fashion a film furnishing the beholder with everything from jelly that works as a transmitter to a guy getting gunned down before a live internet audience to the poor fellow on the run from a killer while covered from face to feet in feces. No kidding.

Director Morten Tyldum keeps the pace of Headhunters by and large brisk as he coaches his cast of capable actors through a deluge of darkly daffy scenes, while at the same time never shying away from the out-and-out grim.

Based on the 2008 Jo Nesbø book of the same name, the film won many awards, including the Public Choice Award of the Amandaprise, Norway’s Oscar equivalent. In March 2016 it was announced that an English-language remake of the film was in the works, but as no news of it has emerged since, it looks like we’re “stuck” with this Norwegian gem.

If you’re hunting for a thriller with a mega-dose of the oddball, I’m issuing a heads up for Headhunters.

This article originally appeared in the September 21, 2018, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.