Headhunters, the Action Film That Kills Toxic Masculinity
This weekend, I rewatched Hodejegerne (Headhunters) a 2011 Norwegian action film based on the book by Jo Nesbø, and found it just as subversive and genre-defying as the first time around.
Roger Brown is a hugely successful corporate recruiter who lives the picture-perfect life replete with a stunning wife, an expensive house, and a decadent lifestyle. He confesses to us in the opening monologue that he is insecure about his height (5’6) and constantly worried that his beautiful wife will leave him. The only way he imagines he can keep her interest is to have a lot of money. He doesn’t make enough to support the lifestyle he imagines is necessary to maintain Diana’s love so he supplements his salary by stealing expensive works of art from his clients. Without giving too much away, I want to mention some of the moments and themes I find particularly impressive and subversive.
Roger Brown is an absolute dick and yet, we root for him completely. He gets a largely happy ending, but it manages to be somewhat believable and satisfying. He doesn’t get a happy ending because he deserves one by staying who he is, but because he earns one by becoming someone new. There are the physical transformations… when he has to jump into the water after Ove, a baptism that ends up being the beginning of a drastic rebirth. He has to shed his physical identity, his expensive clothing, and watch, all the signifiers of who he is in order to dress in Ove’s clothes after killing him in self-defense. When he is caught by the police, he is mistaken for Ove and he nods, playing along. After the accident, the most grueling physical transformation occurs when Roger Brown becomes unrecognizable, frantically shaving his head, cutting himself badly as he does so, on his knees by the water to remove any nano-tracking devices hidden in his voluminous blonde hair. This is one of the most difficult scenes of any media I have ever watched. He is covered in blood, his own and others, and his desperation and fear while cutting himself is brutal to watch. I can’t imagine what it must have been to act. But the scene is effective; he suffers enough through these physical transformations to make a happy ending seem earned. Only when Roger Brown stops telegraphing an identity is he able to find one.
Another subversive aspect of the film is the way it plays with the assumptions we (and Roger) have about his wife, his mistress, and his adversary Clas. We assume a cheating wife, a long-suffering mistress who will do anything to earn the man she loves, and a villain who has the same or opposite objective to the 'protagonist’. And yet, his wife makes a mistake but truly loves him, Lotte his mistress is the one who betrays him, and Clas has his own agenda which is why he always seems to be a few steps ahead. We make the same mistake watching the film that Roger makes living it, seeing everyone as props in his life, as one-dimensional people who are either his possessions to keep or to gain or obstacles to his desire. This is a film where everyone is a bit bad, and that makes them human and believable.
Aside from the subversive aspects above, the movie is slick, stylish, and fast-paced. It is undeniably fun and also deep if you want it to be. And I maintain that the real point of the movie is this exploration of depth. Not a journey I usually like to witness; basically that of another fuckboy finding himself after a lifetime of manipulating and deceiving everyone around him. But this journey is one I found worthwhile. The climax of this film is not a physical one (like in most self-purported action films) but an emotional one when he and Diana tell each other the truth. When he confronts his insecurities and divulges them to her, making himself vulnerable. Aksel Hennie, it has to be noted, is an incredible actor in this film. From self-assured and sly douchebag to basically a newborn baby or Powder, he is believable even in the most absurd situations. (And how absurd! The dog on the tractor while driving is, for some horrific reason, very funny. The twin cops on either side of Roger who are so big they function as airbags in the car accident. Chekhov’s Russian hooker home videos.) This is what sets this movie apart from other action films. It focuses on an emotional journey and the transformation from a man who is all about aesthetics to an ascetic.
