Headhunters Roger (Aksel Hennie, Norway’s answer to Steve Buscemi) is a little guy whose gorgeous wife Diana (Synnove Macody Lund, Norway’s answer to Sweden) has expensive tastes. So Roger, a corporate headhunter, supplements his income with a side business in stolen art. And then … things begin to go wrong for Roger. The twists in this clever thriller are unpredictable, and the action is relentless; in fact, things move so fast that I’m not sure whether the plot holds up. But hey, you could say the same thing about some Hitchcock classics. Release: 2011 Grade: B+
*****
The Silent House Young Laura and her father are hired to repair an abandoned cottage — but this is an old-dark-house movie (sort of), so we know that trouble’s afoot. There’s a fine line between “artistic license” and a storyline that cheats, so how you feel about the twist at the end of this low-budget chiller from Uruguay — shot in one well-choreographed, 78-minute take — will likely depend on what you feel is fair. But until its iffy denouement, this House harbors solid suspense and delivers a few genuine jolts. Release: 2010 Grade: B
*****
Heavenly Creatures The attractions here are Peter Jackson’s direction, the performances by Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, and New Zealand doing what New Zealand does best — looking like New Zealand. But the dark story, based on an actual murder carried out by two teens in 1954, is less compelling than off-putting. Release: 1994 Grade: B
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