The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

I wrote this review in the summer of 2010 and published it before I knew of its book’s existence and before it gained widespread popularity and even before I got to know anything about its American version casting.

Even before I watched ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’, I came across information about its American version directed by David Fincher. My hope is that film is not a direct replica of the original because this Swedish film is an intricately crafted, dark, disturbing, cerebral film which is rated hard R. After watching it, my thrill towards the American version has waned while my excitement towards the two sequels, which are set to release around the same time of year, is on the rise.

This astonishing thriller provides an equal amount of attention to its characters as well as the plot. In detail, it concerns a journalist, Mikael Blomkvich (played by Michael Nyqvist), who uncover the mystery of why he was framed for evidence fabrication. He has six months left until his sentence in which he has been hired by businessman, Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube). The same bloke who hired him, has an active murder/disappearance case that has been cold for the last 40 years. Ever since Harriet was murdered, people have been suspecting members belonging to the Vanger family, as well as, their three Nazi-supporting sons. During her search, Mikael also does some digging around and finds those same three relatives quite interesting.

While Mikael is deep in the investigation, he is being pursued by the repeer-like Swedish hacker, Lisbeth Salander, Noomi Rapace. He tries to convince her how deep into trouble he is and how clean he actually is, but for some reason, she just cannot seem to let things go. While he is convinced that he is clean in the end, Lisbeth, with her unique upbringing, does not go unheard. She is a solitary individual with a history of crime, mental issues, and is a stout feminatical lesbian.

We watch as she goes through unthinkable pain and torture during the movie but what some might fail to realize is that she is also capable of inflicting pain. Her character is deeply layered because she possesses a set of morals, or lack thereof, that place her on a spectrum of decency and justice.

Rapace gives a performance as a hacker unlike any other. Without overdoing it or showing her emotions, she is able to come off as dark and menacing. She is so good at keeping herself contained that she only reveals bits and pieces of herself. Even though I would argue Lisbeth is the most captivating character, she remains grossly underdeveloped. The strange, scant, and subtle details that may hint at a personal obsession, or even a deep-rooted trauma, mental illness are all fascinating ingredients to the machine that drives the plot of the already captivating thriller.

The most astonishing aspect of how this mystery is resolved is how grounded it is in reality. The detective’s Mac computers all have the familiar OSX interface and the way the amasses information in iPhoto, Mail, and Photoshop is astonishing but at the same time acceptable. There are patterns to the ways in which we first see still images, but then, bizarrely, photos start to flap up in front of us. The Digital Era has made this type of storytelling possible.

The action and violence are also bounded by the realistic. Lisbeth is a young woman, small, thin, but sharp. Now consider the the fact that she is proficient in martial arts, has outstanding superhuman stamina, and strength. Quite the contrast, isn’t it? And for good reason. She is a real person, and the same goes with Mikael, the middle aged and probably the only hero one would come across in a movie like this.

The fact that reality is extended at a certain point is an imperfection of the expectations of Hollywood. The movie contains a number of blatantly excessive scenes of torture and rape that do not even loosely confine within the limits of drama or contextual comprehension. With that said, these scenes have been included here. Other than being exceptionally masterfully mood setting and setting the atmosphere, which in itself is so gripping, I believe there is a feminist counterpoint, which is that so many acts of violence surely have to be included. It adds another layer of Rapace’s depth, and why not, the Swedish title of the movie is “Men who Hate Women.” The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a powerful, singular film that possesses strong characters and a harsher environment when compared to most movies nowadays. It has set so high standards for the two subsequent films that are going to be launched in the next two months for book sales of Swedish novels, if I am thinking to read them, and for any actress who dares to perform as awe-inspiring Lisbeth as Rapace did.

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