1. Hodejegerne (Headhunters)
Year 2011,
Director Morten Tyldum,
Starring Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnøve Macody Lund, Eivind Sander, Kyrre Haugen Sydness, Julie R. lgaard. Aksel Hennie makes a second appearance on this list, this time with Headhunters, the film adaptation of Jo Nesbøs international bestselling novel. Set in the worlds of corporate headhunting and modern art, Hennie plays Roger Brown, a man who sounds more like a British civil servant than a Norwegian recruiter. Brown uses his position to identify pieces of valuable art in possession of wealthy individuals, stealing them to fund a lavish lifestyle with his wife Diana, played by Lund, who he feels the need to continuously bestow with gifts to compensate for his less than average height. One of his clients, Clas Greve, a Dutchman played by Danish actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, becomes involved in both of their lives, with an enigmatic agenda that soon leads to an enthralling cat-and-mouse chase across the country that humanises the deviant Brown as he is pursued by Greve, portrayed with the same mix of dashing and menace as Coster-Waldaus Game of Thrones character, Jaime Lannister. Whilst film adaptations of books are often inferior to their source material, this is a rare occasion where the film is equal to, if not better, than its literary counterpart, trimming unnecessary material to create a film that excels from the first minute to the last.