2009, Sweden/Denmark/Germany/Norway
Adventure, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
READ THE REVIEW AT The Desert Sun.
Extended version:
How fitting that the first book from a posthumously best selling trilogy should become reincarnated on screen as a slick murder mystery, gripping in every minute of its two-and-a-half hour run time. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the novel Men Who Hate Women by the late Stieg Larsson, paints the dark underbelly of Stockholm and a twisted family tree with its share of poisoned branches.
Niels Arden Oplev directs the first film in the Millennium Trilogy (the second and third films, directed by Daniel Alfredson, have already been released to European audiences), and does so with a deft hand. The story launches with the trial of investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist (who works for the Millennium magazine of the trilogy's name), found guilty of digging too deeply into a businessman's extracurricular activities. His libelous pursuit finds him on hiatus from his writing duties, but conveniently he is hired to crack open a cold case on a colder family.
The Vanger clan has held power and money for generations, but all that is lost on Henrik Vanger who is obsessed about discovering which of his kin killed his beloved niece Harriet who disappeared 40 years ago. Skeletons rattle in every closet, though it is not until Lisbeth Salander (the titular tattooed girl) comes to the journalist's aid that the dust is really shaken off of the old clues. A hacker hired to check Mikael's background, the two begin to piece together the evidence, she with her computer and he with fading archives.
Lisbeth's goth demeanor and spiked choker might lead some to assume that she will morph into a superhero, flashing deathly high kicks to her assailants at the last second. However, she is quite human, her flesh as fragile as the next, but her piercing mind stores away every assault and misdeed for future revenge. A troubled history is implied, and at 24 years old she is still bound to a legal guardian who further tortures her body and soul. It is no wonder that she holds all relationships at a distance and assesses every man she meets with severe calculations.
The Vangers are perfectly distanced from reality on Hedeby Island, a location with one bridge on which to arrive or escape -- a transport which was blocked on the day of Harriet's disappearance. As Mikael and Lisbeth overturn every bloody rock, they discover not one murder but many, leading them on a new quest for a serial killer who has gone unnoticed.
Slick and satisfying, the conclusion is simultaneously horrifying and believable in the scheme of events. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo creates a gritty, dangerous world that begs to be explored, with investigators leading the way who are intelligent and credible. This dark and gnarled Swedish film is sure to garner a following in the States (it earned a 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival Audience Award), with the hope that Lisbeth's future pursuits in parts two and three will come quickly tumbling after.