The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo injects its pulpy , eminent - tech noir with references to Swedish / Nazi collaborators and cloak-and-dagger societies . If you dig a well - executed suspense thriller , this movie play like a master ’s usher on how it ’s done .
Niels Arden Oplev ’s adaptation of the first book of Stieg Larsson ’s “ Millenium Trilogy ” , The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a crackin ’ thriller in which Mikael Blomkvist ( Michael Nyqvist ) , a late dishonor journalist , and Lisbeth Salander ( Noomi Rapace ) , a lesbian hack with a history of violent mental episode , are hired by the patriarch of the rich and problematic Vanger clan . Uncle Vanger want them to discover out what happened to Harriet Vanger , his niece and pet congeneric who vanish from the kin ’s island some forty year prior . In the class of their investigation they discover a labyrinthian cabal involve political science cover - ups , a serial of unsolved slaying , brutal rape and Nazi .
Already a major hitting in its native Sweden and across Europe ( “ The Girl Who Played with Fire ” , the second motion-picture show , has already been released overseas ) , this first moving-picture show is essentially a tight small mystery thriller with a morose - as - pitch underbelly and top - ledge output value . At first coup d’oeil it may , at least to American audiences , resemble little more than a well - done mystery kin to the sort of mystery Hollywood has been arrange out consistently since before World War II ; there ’s a bolt of Hitchcock here , a bit of “ The Silence of the Lambs ” there . But the sum of its parts is still both compelling and clearly European , and results in a narration that involve its metre , ground both its character reference and the plot with a welcome and tonic tier of longanimity and restraint .
It ’s believably also worth noting that the oversea response to this film ( and the lead ballyhoo ) , may perplex some U.S. audiences who can appreciate its control surface virtues but not really relate to some of the core political undertide .
Blomkvist and Salander spend the entire first act in separate worlds , their story swimmingly converging in a manner that feel neither contrived nor hackneyed . Blomkvist is an idealist , the publishing firm of Millenium , the magazine after which the literary trilogy is advert . Less a straight - jawed paladin than a more or less - clumsy scholastic , Blomkvist dared to try and expose a major corporation as corrupt but sustain in over his brain , and has only a few weeks to solve Vanger ’s case before he ’s sent to prison for libel .
The clandestine artillery here is , of course , Salander , easily one of the most fascinating characters to go forth in recent cinema , and Rapace ’s portrayal is sales pitch perfect . A tattoo - covered , Mac - using , motorcycle - ride Tank Girl by way of Neo ( with a footling bit of wounded Jodie Foster discombobulate in ) , every moment Salander is onscreen the movie just pump . She ’s neither a tragic dupe nor an excessively brooding shoegazer , and Rapace sell her untraditional sexual psychological science , as well as her technique with computers and the clues of the case , with alternating degree of subtlety and intensity . She almost seems like the sort of character we ’re more likely to see in some cyber-terrorist action film , but in “ Girl ” feels entirely real . Salander is n’t interested in our fellow feeling , but earns it anyway , and by film ’s end we ’re root for her despite the fact that she ’s still a little scary . Nyqvist plays Blomkvist like he fuck exactly who wears the pants in their eldritch partnership , and his interest in her ( both romanticist and noetic ) is temper with a variety of “ aw red cent ” awe . Together they make one of the best screenland pairings in late memory .
While the pacing may not be everybody ’s loving cup of afternoon tea ( this is less a sensationalist action - thriller than a creepy adjective ) , “ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ” is still an well-heeled one to recommend thanks to its fibre and atmosphere . There ’s just something hard to refuse about a thug Sherlock Holmes , you know ? This one should get a stateside determine tone ending sometime this year , and the parole is that a U.S. remaking is in development , but unless you just ca n’t handle dubbing or subtitles , you owe it to yourself to check it out .
Rating : 8 out of 10
This post by rochefort appeared originally onQuiet Earth .
Movies
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