Heist Love: Headhunters (2011) - Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

The Norwegian film Headhunters, with Aksel Hennie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, is probably the best heist film I have seen in a long time. Aksel Hennie is a well-known Norwegian actor, director and producer, while Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is most well-known as Jamie Lannister from Game of Thrones.

My sister and I love to watch heist movies. And this one didn't disappoint. Full of goony characters and slick art thefts, this movie kept me guessing until nearly the end.

Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is a headhunter at one of the top agencies in Norway. But he has a short-man complex and a very tall and beautiful Norwegian wife whom he doesn't quite feel worthy of. So he over-compensates by spending astronomical amounts of money on homes, jewelry and an art gallery for her. So he has to subsidize his salary by stealing art.

He has a spectacular system going by scoping out possible heists by interviewing targets as clients. Then at his wife's art gallery opening he meets the taller, better-looking, more successful Clas Greev (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). He finds out from his wife that Clas owns a Ruben and also happens to be looking for a new job. So Roger decides he has to interview him as his next target.

And that's just the beginning.

Warning: it has subtitles. But even if you are averse to reading your movies don't let that keep you away. It's worth every word.

The Help (2011) - Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spenser

The story of a young girl who returns to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, she aspires to become a writer.

While her friends titter around the bridge table, she begins to ask the town's maids to tell their stories.

Civil riots are breaking out in Mississippi, one of the worst states in the country. The maids, afraid for their jobs, their families and their lives, decide to risk all to tell the town's secrets.

The movie stars Easy A's Emma Stone as Skeeter, the wide-eyed journalist. The two central maids are played by Doubt's Viola Davis and Spiderman's Octavia Spenser and give scene-stealing performances. Octavia, in fact, really steals the show.

A superb cast, the catty queen bee, Hilly Holbrook, is played by Ron Howard's baby girl, Bryce Dallas Howard. Jessica Chastain, from Tree of Life, is charming as the ditzy, white trash bombshell. And Allison Janney is wonderful as Skeeter's mother.

All in all, it was well done and not too smarmy.

My only concern is that some may think that this is based in fact. Although the notion is real and these types of incidents did occur, no book, entitled "The Help", was ever published in 1963.

And the most interesting factoid? One of the executive producers was Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Media Company, and Nate Berkus, a designer and Oprah protege.