7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
An accomplished headhunter moonlights as an art thief to support a beautiful wife and their expensive life style.
Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Eivind Sander, Julie R. ØlgaardCrime | 100% |
Foreign | 68% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.41:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Norwegian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Most write-ups of Headhunters sound the same, because no reviewer with any respect for the reader wants to give too much away. The film is one of those rare thrillers that rivets viewers to their seats wondering what will happen next, but it does so the hard way, eschewing arbitrary "twists" and driving events from an internal logic that's been carefully worked out, even as the plot becomes so surreal that you're sure it's a dream. It's a tricky high-wire act that requires precision work from everyone involved. Headhunters began as a novel by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø, who also happens to be the vocalist and songwriter for a successful rock band, Di Derre. Nesbø is best known for his detective fiction featuring a tough investigator named Harry Hole and his children's books centered on a quirky character known as Doktor Proktor, but the novel that became Headhunters was a standalone creation published in 2008. The film adaptation was produced by Yellow Bird, the same company that turned Stieg Larsson's Dragon Tattoo novels into enormously successful Swedish films. It opened to great acclaim in Europe in 2011, followed by a successful limited U.S. run in 2012.
In the documentary included on the disc, cinematographer John Andreas Andersen speaks of his aspiration to make Headhunters look like a major American film, while remaining within a typically modest Norwegian production budget. The extent of his success can be appreciated on Magnolia's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, which provides a beautifully detailed image of such crystalline clarity that one could almost swear that Headhunters was shot digitally. However, all available sources indicate that the film was shot on 35mm stock, then processed (heavily) on a digital intermediate. The result is a stylized, refined image that has been so manipulated in post-production that you have to look very closely to detect traces of the film's original grain structure. Headhunters' color palette favors chilly blues, grays and whites and desaturates most other colors, especially reds and browns. Norway is a cold country, and the people of Headhunters are coldly calculating individuals (well, most of them). Blacks are deep, and different levels of black are well-differentiated. The path to Blu-ray must have been direct from digital files, because there isn't a hint of any artifact from an analog stage, nor were there any issues with compression. Nothing gets between you and what's happening on screen, although you may occasionally wish that some of the things you're being shown were a little less clear. (The screenshots accompanying this review have been carefully selected to avoid revealing anything.)
Of the two available DTS-HD MA 5.1 tracks, I listened only to the original Norwegian, with English subtitles engaged. Although all of the dialogue and effects are confined to the front soundstage, it would be inaccurate to describe the mix as "front-centered". From the very opening, the impressively moody score by Trond Bjerknes and Jeppe Kaas spreads out into the entire surround array, enveloping the listener in its foreboding strains. This is one of the most aggressive uses of a film score that I have encountered in some time, but it's effective, because the score suits the action so well that it becomes the equivalent of an additional character. The track has very good dynamic range, and key effects, which I won't identify because of spoilers, register with appropriate impact.
Some viewers live to find "plot holes" in movies, and Headhunters isn't immune. Every good story depends on a certain degree of chance and coincidence. (So does life, for that matter.) The test of a thriller isn't whether every last detail is accounted for, but whether it successfully pulls you into its machinery and holds you there for the duration. Among the key elements required for such a feat are a director with a vision, a story you can't get out in front of, an editor with a clever sense of rhythm and a lead actor who's able to engage the viewer's interest and, ultimately, sympathy. Headhunters has all that and much more. Highly recommended.
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