This is the first film in the “Millennium” trilogy based on the books by Steig Larsson, and it is also the best. For those that don’t know, the trilogy was originally shot for Swedish television, with the idea that the first film would be shown in cinemas, while the following two parts would screen on the small format. This is what benefits “Dragon Tattoo” over the other two films, because it is a very cinematic film, while the other two look exactly what they are: made for t.v films.
“Dragon Tattoo” is much more epic, filmed in gorgeous 2:35 widescreen (both “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest” were filmed in 1:85) and has the added bonus of working as a self contained thriller. That is a problem with the sequels, you need to have seen the other films for them to make complete sense.
The story of this film goes like this: after losing a libel case and spending a short time in prison for it, Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and editor of the news magazine “Millennium”, is contacted by Mr. Vanger to help him investigate the murder of his niece, Harriet, some forty years ago. Every year since her murder, Vanger receives a framed flower by the killer on his birthday, taunting the now old-man. Blomkvist accepts the job but does not realise that he is being followed by computer hacker, Lisbeth Salander. This is a girl with a troubled past, that must report regularly to a probationary guardian, who also controls all of her finances. This is all due to a crime that she committed when she was much younger (and that we don’t learn the full extent of until the sequel, “The Girl Who Played With Fire”). Her long-term guardian recently passed away, and her new guardian repeatedly forces Lisbeth to perform sexual acts on him in return of him giving her access to her own money. Lisbeth finally makes her presence known to Blomkvist (and Mikael finally realizes that his computer has been hacked) when she e-mails him a clue to the mystery. From here on out, the two work together and try to find the culprit in this thrilling who-done-it.
This film has it all, action, suspense, some amazing set-pieces, sex and romance and violence, a whole lot of brutal violence, which is not easy to shake off. To give you a hint at the kind of violence within this film, I’ll tell you that the original Swedish title translates to “Men Who Hate Women”. Although these elements are confronting, they are not exploitative and are crucial to the plot of the film, and the psyche of the characters.
The film has been beautifully directed by Niels Arden Oplev (the other two films have a different director, Daniel Alfredson), but it is the star making performance from Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth, that steals the show. She is literally mesmerizing, and you can not take your eyes off of her when she is on screen. Michael Nyqvist is fine as Blomkvist (although his facial expression barely changes throughout the whole trilogy), but nowhere near the level of Rapace’s work.
Another character that must be mentioned is the island itself where the action is set. It is so much a part of the story, that you feel that this tale could not be told anywhere else (which will be interesting to see how the American remake will handle this). Speaking of the remake, when I initially watched this film the whole time I was thinking, if this gets re-made either Brian De Palma or David Fincher would be perfect for it. History shows that Fincher did end up with the job, and it is a film I am now looking forward to later in 2011. F
inally, I should mention that at two and a half hours, “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” is a long film, but you never feel it, it just flies by, so if you are put off by the running time, please don’t be (incidentally, there is also an extended version of this film that runs three hours, which is what screened when it played on Swedish television, but unfortunately I have yet to see this).
Ranked 13 in Top 25 of 2010
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