The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Let me preface this by saying I've gotten into the habit where I don't write reviews about movies I've already seen (perhaps multiple times) or that I watch on DVD. I can't give you my honest first reaction opinion if I've seen it a lot or can hit pause, go away to cut the tension, and then come back.  Of course that wasn't the case with my Golden Globe project but it is the precedent now.  Since I just told you all of that I will now inform you that I'm breaking my rule.  I'm going to write a review about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo even though I watched it last night on DVD because A) it was an amazing movie that I need to write about to work through and B) because I'm planning on the seeing the sequel The Girl Who Plays with Fire this weekend and it would be nice to have something about the first movie in print. 


I went into this movie not knowing quite what it was about. I'd read synopsis summing up that a journalist is checking into a 40 year disappearance and engages the aid of a hacker to help him solve the case.  Even that seemed convoluted to what I was trying to read into the title. So there is the journalist, Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), the hacker, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), and the missing girl Harriet Vanger (Julia Sporre).  Lisbeth has been hacking into Mikael's computer where he keeps information on Harriet's case. She solves some clues for him so he invites her to properly join in the the investigation on Harriet's disappearance 40 years ago.

Very little is told about Lisbeth's past although it clearly influences her present.  You learn that she is a ward of the State at 24 years old. She reports to a guardian (or probation officer) who controls her finances. It is one of the most disturbing relationships of the movie. You get hints to her past but nothing is explained.

Mikael has six months before he starts to serve a jail sentence for liable - - for which he was set-up. In this downtime he is contacted by Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) to look into the disappearance of his niece Harriet.  This happened over 40 years ago and Henrik is convinced that it is a member of his immediate family that killed Harriet. Her body was never found and the case was never solved.

This movie was so good. It was disturbing and thought-provoking.  I've seen enough movies that for me to not figure out the end before the end is unusual. Or at least know that it could go one of x amount of ways.  But with this movie I was guessing right up until the end: who was it? There was one piece of information that I felt was held back simply so the idea would not occur to anyone earlier in the film. I thought, 'Oh! Well if I'd known that of course I would've thought this!' It's something that Mikael and Lisbeth knew but they just didn't share with the audience. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

This film is dark: physically, emotionally, and directorally.  Niels Arden Oplev directed and it was fantastic. At just over two and a half hours it is well paced incorporating the research with road-trips. The dynamic between Mikael and Lisbeth is hard to discern.  I'm not quite sure what either one of them is expecting of the relationship after Mikael's six month leave is up and he must go to jail.

It was such a breath of fresh air!  It truly disturbed in a way that was fantastic; I'd become so complacent in my movies thinking that they were all the same. I can honestly say that at 22 years old this is my first adult movie that I've seen that disturbed me enough but makes me want to see it again (unlike, for example, A Clockwork Orange). It's so real that I can see it happening (unlike, for example, Pulp Fiction). That is what makes it such a great movie: the reality of the situation. It just blew my mind away!  But like I said - - very adult so if you're easily offended you should see this anyway just to stretch your limits.