Movie review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

THE wait is almost over, with the first instalment of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy hitting the big screen next week.

Some of you might be asking “haven’t they already made movies out of these books?” and the answer is yes, they have – in Swedish.

Swedish film makers jumped on just how successful the books were with big screen transformations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, all released in 2009.

So why a remake of the movie so soon? With a series this successful, there was no way Hollywood was just going to be a spectator.

Hollywood director David Fincher (Fight Club, The Social Network), unravels Larsson’s thriller on the screen. Mikael Blomkvist, played by Daniel Craig, is a financial reporter who is determined to restore his honour after being convicted of libel. Blomkvist is then approached by one of Sweden’s wealthiest industrialists Henrik Vagner, played by Christopher Plummer.

All Vagner wants from Blomkvist is for the journalist to get to the bottom of the disappearance of his niece, Harriet. Vagner believes she was murdered by a member of the family.  We soon find out this family is not short of secrets, corruption, hate and inner demons.

Blomkvist accepts the challenge, unaware of what lies on the road ahead.

Meanwhile, to make sure he was hiring the tight man for the job, Vagner runs a background check on Blomkvist. Ingenious hacker Lisbeth Salander, played by Rooney Mara, is hired through a company called Milton Security to get the job done. The job results in Salander crossing paths with Blomkvist and it is not long before the pair joins forces to solve the 40-year-old mystery of who killed Harriet Vagner.

They begin to trace a chain of homicides from the past into the present, forging a fragile strand of trust.

We soon discover Salander is not short of a few dark secrets of her own.

If you have watched the Swedish version or read the book, you will find Hollywood portrays Blomkvist as the ”tough guy”, while the Swedish version shows a more sensitive and caring character. Lizbeth’s strong, edgy punk personality is also played down in Hollywood’s version.

The Swedish version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo captures Larsson’s themes of misogyny, corruption, fanaticism, social welfare, justice and power but credit goes to Fincher who made it even better.
 
The books have sold more than 65 million copies in 46 different countries and were first published in 2005, shortly after Larsson died from a heart attack at just 50 years old. It was not long before the books dominated bestseller lists.

Larsson had long been a renowned journalist in Sweden, who was devoted to unmasking neo-Nazi, white supremacist and extreme organisations lurking in Europe. Knowing this as a viewer of the movie and someone who has read the books, it is easy enough to identify Blomkvist with Larsson’s alter ego.

The soundtrack for the film was by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and English musician, composer and producer Atticus Ross. The pair re-united following their Academy Award for best score for the Social Network. Reznor and Karen O cover Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, which plays in the opening scene of the film and it will have you hooked.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is rated MA 15+ and opens in cinemas on January 12.