The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

My decade long obsession with the Swedish entertainment industry has finally paid off. So the entire world read The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo and it is going to be David Fincher’s next movie, but the Swedish version came first. And although I trust Fincher, the remake has a tough road ahead of it.

The book was a solid mystery and the movie doesn’t stray too far from the written version. Thankfully they didn’t shy away from the harsh plot points that are easier to write but harder to film. Wow … I’m not comfortable with the fact that I just wrote that sentence. Let’s try to dig myself out of this hole; there are some absolutely brutal scenes in this movie that are important to the character of Lisbeth. But good goddamn; I’m sure the American remake will have the rape and the rape revenge but there is no way it will be filmed as horrifically as the Swedish version. And the plot is tight and detailed in the book and even in the shortened movie timeframe the mystery can still be followed if you pay attention. Also it would help if you have 3 hours to sit still because this is a long-ass film.

It's always amusing when a foreign movie like this hits big and the names start popping up for future Hollywood movies. There are 2 main performances in The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander and Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist. Lisbeth is THE role in this trilogy and Noomi steps up to the plate. It is hard to explain her character in a sentence but she is both the most powerful and the most vulnerable person in this movie. She gets brutally raped and gets an even brutaller revenge. She has a photographic memory and uses her skills to hack into everyone's business. And because of her performance, Noomi got herself cast in the Sherlock Holmes sequel. The actual main character in The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo is Mikael Blomkvist. He is the reporter investigating the 50 year-old disappearance of a teenage girl. His part is the standard mystery performance while Lisbeth delivers all the memorable moments. Still Nygvist got himself a spot in Mission: Impossible IV so he must have done something right.

I probably didn't do justice to The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo because this was a phenomenal movie. The mystery holds up on film and Noomi Rapace was able to bring such a memorable character to life. I have high hopes for David Fincher's version.

9 out of 10