Headhunters (15)

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Dir: Morten Tyldum

With: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synove Macody Lund

Running time: 100 minutes

WITH even Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, giving Nordic noir the royal seal of approval on a visit to the set of The Killing, Scandinavian mayhem really is having its moment in the sun. With perfect timing, therefore, comes this rattle-along thriller adapted from the bestseller by Jo Nesbo.

Morten Tyldum's film has everything devotees could want. Subtitles. That lovely, hurdy-gurdy language. Tall, beautiful Norse types, and some short folk as well. More twists than once featured in the personal lives of Abba. All that, and moral conundrums too.

The question at the heart of Headhunters is what would you do if your cleverly constructed world was threatened with destruction? It is not a problem gripping the film's anti-hero Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) as the movie opens.

Short of stature but positively Empire State Building in ego, he is the recruitment consultant of the title, a man who prides himself on getting the measure of a candidate quickly and shuffling them off to a client for a fat fee.

On the surface he is a middle man, an office bod, the type who shouldn't need to get his hands dirty. But he also has a blonde, statuesque, gallery-owning, high-spending wife, Diana (Synove Macody Lund). All she really wants from him is a baby, but since he doesn't want to be tied down he gives her everything else he thinks she desires. To pay for that, he has a second job. The kind of job you wouldn't want advertised.

Everything is going well in this complicated life, save for Brown requiring even more money to stay ahead of the game he's playing. Cue the entry of the enigmatic Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Young as he is, Greve has just retired from a high tech company with lots of money. And he has something else Brown desires.

Tyldum, who worked with Hennie on the crime short Fast Forward and the comedy drama Buddy, takes it from there. Like the book, the film is punchy, knotty and a lot of fun if you like your comedy blacker than Norwegian oil.

Central to its success is Hennie, who oozes swagger as Brown, only to shatter like a teacup when events turn against him. He even manages to stay watchable despite having a haircut that would shame a 1970s footballer. As in all the best thrillers, Headhunters has a hero who really ought not to be likeable but who somehow sneaks his way into your affections.

Brown's opposite in looks and much else is Greve, a character Coster-Waldau plays with supreme cool. Like Brown's wife and their fabulous home, all glass walls, white sofas and blonde wood, he is very easy on the eye. The entire picture has the sharp, stylish production values of a glossy magazine come to life. All of which provides a satisfying contrast to the grubby goings on happening within the frame.

That is one theory, anyway, on why Nordic noir has proved so popular with readers. Crime remains a black and white case of good versus evil, but it is presented in many tasteful shades of grey. (Another reason it has taken off is that it is nice to watch characters freeze their anoraks off somewhere in Scandinavia while you are tucked up on a sofa in not quite as Arctic Scotland.)

Headhunters is not, of course, the first film to emerge from the fray. It won't be the last either. Martin Scorsese is to direct another of Nesbo's novels, The Snowman, featuring the detective Harry Hole.

First off the page and into the cinema was Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, which was made in the original Swedish and remade recently by David Fincher for Hollywood.

Headhunters is not as gloomy, violent or raw as the Millennium films. This is more a Thomas Crown Affair experience than a watch through your fingers crime and gore fest. Tyldum takes delight in playing with genre styles, moving through the gears from comedy to action to thriller and romance. The action scenes are terrific, immaculately set up and executed, with just the right balance of believability and breathtaking nerve.

Like every other trend, there is likely a sell by date on Nordic noir, but on the evidence of Headhunters it looks a long way off yet. Predictably enough, a US remake is on the cards, with Mark Wahlberg reportedly keen on playing Brown.

While purists might disagree, there is nothing inherently wrong with a remake if it is done in the right spirit and with added flair. Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was as good as remakes get, with its lead, Rooney Mara, playing computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, earning an Oscar nomination for best actress.

Yet you would have to go a fair way to beat Tyldum's thriller, with its pitch perfect leading man and its sheer commitment to providing wall to wall thrills. Hunt it down now.