Customer Reviews

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (English subtitled)

5 star:		(290)
4 star:		(107)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(33)

 

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is the first in the trilogy of crime novels written by Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson. Larsson wrote them during his spare time, as a form of amusement. However, the novels were not published until after Larsson's untimely death in Nov 2004. The author never had the opportunity to enjoy the critical and the commercial success his books eventually earned. In 2008 Larssen became the second best selling author on the planet.

Now, on to the story:
Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist, convicted, unjustly he believes, of libel against a powerful industrialist. As Blomkvist awaits the commencement of his sentence, he is hired by a scion of a wealthy family to investigate the disappearance of the man's bellowed niece 40 years earlier. Everyone, initially including Blomkvist, believes the case is hopeless. Unexpectedly though, help comes in form of "the girl with the dragon tattoo", Lisbeth Salander. The mysterious woman clearly has a severe past: despite being 24 years old, her person and finances are being managed by a court appointed guardian. She does however, have a brilliant mind and, as we are about to learn, a powerful will... She quickly becomes the driving force of the investigation. We watch transfixed, as the past reaches into the presence, and touches the lives of Blomkvist, Salander, her guardian, the industrialist and the wealthy scion.

The story, as written by Larsson, is extremely brutal (consider that the original, and the very apt, Swedish title is "Men Who Hate Women"). However, I am inclined to believe the violence serves as another character in the story and as such is necessary. I am therefore glad that the filmmakers did not seek to tamper it, thus neutering the punch the story delivers. Though this Swedish adaptation is scripted and directed to the highest standard, the focus must be on the performance of the actress Noomi Rapace. Her portrayal of Lisbeth is shockingly faithful to the text and the actress manages to take over the film with her very appearance.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is one of the best adaptations I have seen, ever. I encourage you not to miss it; though do see it with friends, as you will afterwards feel strongly compelled to discuss the various explosive plot twists. I hope Hollywood never touches this gem. I am anxiously waiting for the next two installments to hit US screens.

PS: Keep in mind, this film is NOT for the underaged.

A terrific movie that develops a complex story in a fast-paced way. The screenwriter has done an excellent job at shaving away any excess in the book (which I liked very much) and really focused on the action without losing anything. Actors are wonderful, totally believable and unknown to this American - which goes a long way to making them inhabit their roles so completely. Swedish countryside is almost another character and the audience also gets a travelogue from seeing these great moody swaths of land, snow and island woods.

The movie is enjoyable whether or not you've read the book and is one of the rare ones that improves upon the book. [THE GODFATHER is the only other one that comes to mind.]

Highly recommended!

The best screen adaptation from a book in years. The director has honored this well writtten work by following the book almost perfectly without omitting or sacrificing parts of the story. Lisbeth Sanders is perfectly cast. Rapace is Lisbeth. She creates a cult of somewhat envious admiring viewers wanting to become like Lisbeth. She is a fiery hellcat with an appealing naivete. This has viewers cheering for her to be avenged. Mikael too is equally well cast. Using orthodox methods, he step-by step partners with Lisbeth to peal back the layers of the mystery. Lisbeth stays always a step ahead of Mikael in her discoveries. The less well developed character Erika plays a lesser role. However, it is obvious there is bond if not a deeper relationship between Erika and Mikael. This relationship is given little emphasis in the directors efforts to focus on the real plot. Fast moving,well filmed and worth seeing.

I'm a fervent and early fan of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. I would have flown to another city to watch this film if I had to. Luckily, I live in one of the country's best cities for art house cinema: Dallas. Yes, contrary to the expected stereotypes I always have to bat down when I tell out-of-town friends this fact: Dallas has a tremendous art house cinema culture. And, as testament to that, we got "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" very early. What a thrill for us.

I am not going to claim that the movie is better than the book. What makes the books so compelling are the monster-deep dives Larsson takes into varied areas like investigative journalism, corruption, hacking, mafia, governmental affairs, mafia-government connections, intelligence agencies, detectives..and a host of others. What makes the first book spin is its dual axes of investigative journalism and hacking, personified respectively by Larsson's two protagonists, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. In the movie, something's gotta give: there's just no earthly way director Niels Arden Oplev is going to be able to fit all of Larsson's work into a film of slightly less than three hours.

So what Oplev does is strip the story down to its core: the hunt for Harriet Vanger. It's this case that serendipitously brings Blomkvist and Salander together. In the process of the focus, we lose some of the flavor that is the hallmark of the book, most notably much of the investigative journalism as practiced inside the walls of Millennium magazine. Millennium's editor, Erika Berger, is but a footnote in the movie but a big part of the book. Likewise, little attention is given to the so-called "Wennerström Affair," the personal and professional downfall that befalls Mikael at the book's outset. Indeed, the first third of the book focuses mainly on these two elements of the tale.

Similarly, we lose out on some other aspects of Mikael's character. Mainly, his babe-magnetism. In the movie, he and Salander develop a sexual relationship. [Indeed, it's undertones of the memories of this relationship that drives much of books two and three.] But the movie has removed the sexual aspects from two of the other relationships Mikael has with female characters.

Despite all that, this movie lives and dies on one turn: it's ability to 'get it right' with its casting of Lisbeth. Over and over I would to my wife "Lisbeth better be good." And she'd tell me the same thing repeatedly. And others I know have the same mantra: don't mess with my ideal vision of Lisbeth. In that light, Noomi Rapace represents deliverance. She scored the essence of the character: we want Lisbeth to have that mix of smarts, hardened exterior, quirky beauty, ferocity and manic energy that drives the book. Ms. Rapace delivers all that in spades. She's maybe a little less elfin than the character described by Larsson, but other than that, she's the Lisbeth from my head.

I urge all fans of the book to see this enjoyable adaptation. [Oplev made all three movies at once, so the other two are headed this way.] Embrace the subtitles. This is a Swedish story through and through. It deserves to be seen in Swedish. It's distressing to see US box office totals stalling at less than $10M. All that is going to do is fuel the drive to complete an insipid US version with some disheartening casting like Brad Pitt as Mikael and god knows who as Lisbeth. Whoever steps into that role, Noomi Rapace has already left her well behind at the starting line.

Over 2.5 million people in Scandinavia have seen this film, making it the first film in Scandinavian history ever to break the $100 million mark for European ticket sales, and US fans of Stieg Larsson's bestseller of the same name may propel the film to similar records here. The R-rated film tells the story of Mikael Blomqvist, a disgraced journalist for Sweden's Millenium magazine who accepts an invitation from an elderly businessman to investigate the disappearance of his niece Harriet, thirty-seven years ago. No trace of her has ever turned up, and the old man fears that a member of his family may have murdered her. While Blomquist is gathering information and storing it on his computer, he realizes that someone is hacking into his files. That person is Lizbeth Salander, a disturbed young woman living under the guardianship of the state, having spent time in a mental institution. Working together, they discover information about the Vanger family's Nazi connections and their association with extreme religious groups.

Danish director Niels Arden Oplev's dark and atmospheric cinematography establishes an ice-cold mood from the outset, with the action taking place in winter on an isolated island where the sun never seems to shine. Outdoor scenes are mostly black, white, and gray; interior scenes are full of clutter and of dark wood of almost claustrophobic heaviness. Michael Nyqvist (as Mikael Blomqvist) conveys the sense of loss, even betrayal, that his character feels after losing a libel case in a miscarriage of justice, and his vulnerability makes him the perfect foil for Noomi Rapace (as Lizbeth Salander). Rapace conveys not only the toughness and emotional dissociation resulting from abuse Lizbeth has faced, but also, in two memorable scenes, the feeling that behind the seemingly ironclad façade, there beats a real heart. Her role in the film is bigger than it is in the novel, and when she is on screen, it is impossible to look at anyone else. Nyqvist seems to recognize this, conveying Blomqvist's support for her through body language, gesture, and facial expressions, and remaining more in the background. The supporting actors, though their parts are far less developed, are equally committed to the film as a whole.

Brilliant pacing keeps the action and its shocks continuing throughout the film, and not a single "dead spot" appears, an extraordinary feat for a film that is more than two-and-a-half hours long and depends upon subtitles for dialogue. Even people familiar with the book will be jolted by the sudden visual shocks as they hit. Horrifying cenes of physical and sexual violence often make the film very difficult to watch, the sounds of the violence making the visual effects even stronger. There are some scenes of nudity.

Every aspect of this film is integrated into the whole, however, and it is difficult to imagine any adult fan of the book being disappointed in this production. The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the remaining two books in the trilogy, have already been filmed and released to huge audiences in Europe, and both of these films are projected for release in the US (with subtitles) in the fall of 2010. Mary Whipple

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage)

Synopsis
Two story lines mingle in this Swedish cold case movie. Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist that was set up for a crime. After being found guilty, he is contacted by the former head of the Vanger family to solve the mystery of his niece's death in the 1960's.
Lisbeth is a hacker working for a security company. She was responsible for investigating Mikael Blomkvist, and doesn't sever her ties to his computer when she is finished.
Together, they try to solve the mystery of Harriet's murder and uncover a series of violent murders that may be related to her death.

Review
I attempted to read the novel this movie was based on, however, I found the book to be very slow going and eventually gave up. While at times the pace of the movie echoes the book, the development of the case still keeps you involved. The original name of the book was "Men Who Hate Women" which, while less attention grabbing than the current title is certainly accurate. This movie is dark, graphic, and intense. There are scenes of graphic rape and violent crimes. Not to mention, the movie is long.
I really liked the character of Lisbeth. She is vibrant, mysterious, and aggressive. Physically, most of her femininity is gone, but she is a Valkyrie at heart. Mikael seems to be more of a foil to Lisbeth than a developed character. He is more of a faceless "good guy" than an actual person.
Overall, the movie was different than I expected, in a more violent rape kind of way. It actually makes me want to read the rest of the series, if not watch the movies.

My Recommendation
While I'm not entirely sure if I liked the movie, I liked that it made me think. Parts of it certainly made me uncomfortable. I don't recommend this for anyone under 18, even then, I would still think about if you really want to see it. 3/5 - Rent it/ Borrow it

Released just in time to happily mesh with the American publishing advent of the last book in the Millennium trilogy by the late Stieg Larsson, this film adaptation of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" should provide admirers of Lisbeth Salander (hacker extraordinaire and victim of a renegade faction of the Swedish social system) with more than enough fan-tastic material to orbit them into "Girl" heaven.

Director Niels Arden Oplev depicts a Sweden icy in its efficiency; its cleanliness apparent in its scenes of smooth running undergrounds, bridges and autobahns. Beneath the crisp perfection of the surroundings, a misogynist undercurrent flares with the overt intensity of a laser as illustrated by the instantaneous hatred displayed by a pack of leather-clad youths subjugating a young woman to physical abuse in the subway, a guardian of mature years attacking his ward and a teenager subjected to repeated rape and beatings. Director of photography, Eric Kress, intentionally showcases gritty up close and personal full screen faces of the film's protagonists where large pores, warts and all contribute to the feeling of an underlying lack of social airbrushing in spite of all the repressed punctiliousness of both the Scandinavian urban and rural scenes.

The film's leads, most notably Noomi Rapace as the unconventional Salander and Michael Nyqvist as crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, more than adequately do justice to their fictitious counterparts. Rapace's waiflike appearance, economy of motion and smoldering glares bring the understandably sullen Lisbeth to toxic life. Nyqvist's vaguely Charleton Heston sensuality and amused sophistication fleshes out the likeable and idealistic Blomkvist but writers Rasmus Heisterberg and Nikolaj Arcel omit the character's casual sexual relationships with Millenium editor-in-chief Erika Berger, Cecelia Vanger and former babysitter Harriet. Grant it, the film, running over two and a half hours, has little time to waste on gratuitous sexual footage and exploring instead Blomkvist's woes as a convicted journalist and Salander's smoldering rage regarding her tempestuous and unforgivable childhood in a more than adequate adaptation of the novel's main plotline: the collaboration of the two to investigate and resolve a forty-year old murder on an isolated island populated by a wealthy industrial family. Kress again does a more than admirable job of interjecting B&W stills into key moments of revelation during the investigation. In particular is the forty year old photo of the missing/murdered Harriet, enigmatically staring out from her photo frame like an avenging Mona Lisa.

With never a slow moment, the film whets the appetite for more Salander victory moments--the over fifty art house audience with which I viewed this film was more than familiar with Lisbeth's special skills, dark moods and vindictive motivations; lively conversation before and after the film suggested a group already well-versed through the pages of the novels. Each time Salander displayed her ample hacking abilities, unselfconsciously took what she wanted and knowingly puzzled out a conundrum of Chinese proportions, the audience burst into appreciative laughter or applause, suggesting that the cult of the underdog as epitomized by the tattooed and pierced eighty-something pound, 24 year old Salander was alive and well admired by the sector of American senior citizens who frequent long foreign speaking films with English subtitles.

This reviewer's disappointment came only once with the film's exclusion of the last scene of the novel where Salander, in observing love interest Blomkvist with long-time lover Erika Berger, feels pangs of the ever familiar betrayal, jealousy and resentment of which she has grown accustomed. Seeing Salander's vulnerability in this context would have segued me right into the next film with no degree of difficulty. I also wondered if those who had not read the book prior to seeing the film had difficulty keeping all the plot threads tucked neatly into a well-organized ball.

Bottom line? Director Niels Arden Oplev's adaptation of journalist Stieg Larsson's 600+ page crime thriller, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" successfully entertains and captivates its audience with a faithful representation of the first in a series of three films based on the Millennium trilogy recounting the trials and tribulations of an abused and misunderstood girl with extraordinary powers of perception and technological skills. Cinematography by Eric Kress features a lovely and diffused snow-flaked Sweden compared to the harsh depravity of some of it inhabitants as seen baldly under the glare of too bright light that show every crease, wrinkle and enlarged pore. Noomi Rapace's performance as Lisbeth smarts with an indignation and nonconformity applauded by audiences of all ages and mindsets. A thoroughly entertaining and compelling storyline underlined by special skills makes this one a must see for all those who love the crime genre. Filmed in Swedish with English subtitles. Mature themes and graphic violence not intended for viewing by young children. Highly Recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"

As written by so many others, this is the best screen adaption of a book I have ever seen. Although I would have preferred to listen in English, I did not find it distracting to listen to Swedish and see English. I highly recommend this movie and the book. It is a shame Stieg Larsson died, he would have had a wonderful writing career based on the three books already released. SEE THE MOVIE, but read the book first if at all possible - do not let fear of reading stop you.

After getting the DVD from Amazon, I was delighted to find that there was also an English dubbed version available on the disk. This makes it easier for people who have not read the book to follow. Having said that, the English dialog does not fit the lip movements of the actors and is a little distracting, as in most foreign film dubbed into English (or English language films dubbed into another language). This is a great adaptation of a very well written book and worth the time and price.

Let's see... after you get past the scenes of oral sex (forced), rape, torture, mutilation, casual sex, and sodomy (forced), there's a really good mystery story here... until you're treated to even more graphic pictures of even more victims. The body count is too high; the sexual violence is horrifying. The story itself was buried in the excessive violence, for my tastes. I can understand the reviews; it really is a riveting story. There are simply too many reasons to look away and not look back. Sorry.

It is very rare to watch a movie based on a favorite book and not be disappointed. THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, however, is a rare exception as it is a perfect adaptation. Both the cast and the scenery was very close to the imagery the late Stieg Larsson created in my mind while I was reading his masterpiece. And the story follows the book plot with faithful reverence.
Having said that, even if one missed on the book this is a powerful and very entertaining movie on its own.

The movie is in Swedish (as it should) and if, like me, not fluent in the language, one has to use subtitles. I prefer this kind of translation to dubbing as I find it more respectful of the artists' original vision and craft. German and French (to to mention American) audiences, to name but a few, have been addicted to hearing their own language. This convenience, although it can work for most blockbusters, it rubs off all the subtle details that give rise to a masterpiece.

Noomi Rapace simply IS Lisbeth Salander. The body-type, the attitude, the self-assured distrust towards the world. From the way she enters a room to the way she hits her computer keys she is possessed by Lisbeth's spirit.
In this first installment of the Millennium Trilogy Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) and his investigation form the center of gravity. No matter, the moment Lisbeth enters a scene she steals it away simply because there hasn't been such an original character for a long time. Nobody wants to cross THIS version of Pipi Longstockings!

The story revolves around a locked-room/island mystery. An industrialist, Henrik Vanger, has life-long obsession with what really happened to his beloved niece, Harriet. Although the Vagner family has no..shortage of bad apples, the mystery resisted to 40 years of thorough investigation by both the police and numerous private investigators. Blomkvist is persuaded to give it one last try not only by the substantial paycheck but also by the promise to be able to clear his name, tricked and convicted into libel as he had been.

The Millennium Trilogy is Larsson's last gift to the world. And it starts with THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.
The movie is strong and potent. It will stay with you for a long time.