I've heard a lot of good things about The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a Swedish film adaptation of the Swedish novel of the same name. I haven't read the book, whenever I see it I pick it up, read the back and think it doesn't sound like something I'd want to read. It's the story about an investigation about a 40 year old missing girl case and murders. Next year there'll be an American adaptation directed by David Fincher, so this should be right up his alley (check out Zodiac). So I figured I'd check this out.
The film is slow to get going. Part of this is setting up the character of Mikael Blomkvist. A necessary delay. He's a disgraced journalist who has just been convicted of slandering a businessman (he claims he was set up) and will start his jail sentence in six months. He needs to have a reason to take up the case of the missing Harriet Vanger when called upon by her uncle Henrik. The case is 40 years old. He has nothing to lose, so he might as well look into this, he won't be working otherwise as he's been pushed out of his magazine by the scandal.
What's unnecessary is all the time spent on Lisbeth Salander (the girl with the dragon tattoo of the title). She's eccentric. And she has issues. But they spend a lot of time, in the beginning, delaying the actual start of the story with a sidetrack between her and her new parole guardian. He's abusive and likes to take advantage of his power. The episode is, in and of itself, interesting and compelling. In the larger framework of the story, however, it doesn't add anything that couldn't be done in a more subtle fashion. It's supposed to add character to her, but you could just as easily add that depth through hints, mannerisms, etc, and not stop the story dead in its tracks for 10-15 minutes, just as it's starting to get going. Besides, she's supposed to be enigmatic, so she'd be better served without us knowing. And it seems to be revealed, at the end, that she has a previous history of suffering through abuse, so is this extra 10-15 minutes really necessary?
Once the dust settles on that and the story finally starts to get going, it's really good. It's well done. It's shot very well and the actors give good performances, especially Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth. There's family intrigue, as the Vanger family lives on an island accessible only by a single bridge. Harriet disappeared while the bridge was blocked off for 24 hours because of a traffic accident. The whole clan was there for a business meeting, they don't like each other, and many of them are very unsavory, so there's a select group of possible suspects. The cops weren't able to find anything for 40 years.
Lisbeth, who works for a security company, had previously been hired to investigate Mikael, and she is a very skilled computer hacker. Even though her investigation is over, she continues to hack into Mikael's computer. Once he starts working on the case, she comes across a clue that she's able to crack thanks to her photographic memory. She sends him an email which leads him to bring her on board for the case. From there they unravel serial murders with religious themes, which it seems Harriet seemed to be looking into and maybe got too close to.
The twists and turns are well done and build suspense. It keeps you on the edge of your seat. Then they solve the murders, but not the disappearance of Harriet. When the murders are solved, you feel the resolution and are thus ready for the movie to be over, but it has to continue on further. So this makes the end feel as though it drags on and on. Even when they figure out what happened to Harriet, they drag it on even more.
The original Swedish title translates to Men Who Hate Women and the movie can tend to beat you over the head with that theme, without really saying anything about violence against women. It could use more subtlety. Is there a woman in this movie who hasn't been abused by a man?
In between the slow start and dragging end, this is a very good, interesting, suspenseful movie. Lisbeth is an intriguing character. With some trimming, this could be a much better movie. But I still don't know if the book is something I'd want to read.
3 out of 5
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