Headhunters

A diminutive recruiting executive living beyond his means supplements his income by stealing valuable art pieces from perspective clients. After meeting a prospective client for a high echelon position, who is also in retention of an extremely rare work by Rubens, the recruiter seeks to make one final score, which inevitably leads him down a rabbit hole of violence and mayhem. "Headhunters" is the latest film in two types of trends in action films, a sleek Scandinavian import headed for an American remake and the more common one of thrillers that are more concerned with twists and coincidence than they are with basic storytelling and genuine thrills. When the plot very early on begins introducing such items as "microscopic tracking devices", gun tag being played with blanks, hidden cameras, and a house where "a gun is always within arms reach", you can see the seeds of chicanery being planted. I liked Aksel Hennie's performance and how he was able to make his hotshot character likable, and "Game of Thrones" actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau makes for a sinister bad guy, but it is not enough to make up for the dearth in this sleek Norwegian actioneer.