Quickcard Review
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män Som Hatar Kvinnor)
Directed by: Niels Arden Oplev Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Peter Haber Running Time: 2 hr 30 min Rating: unrated
COMPLETE COVERAGE – 33rd Portland International Film Festival
PLOT: A disgraced journalist is hired by the powerful head of a wealthy family to find a woman missing for 40 years. He's joined by an antisocial hacker and together they uncover way more about the Vanger family than they anticipated.
WHO'S IT FOR? Fans of the bestselling novel will line up to see this film. But if you don't know the book, be prepared for a sometimes violent but also very interesting story.
OVERALL
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an adaption of a hugely popular novel, originally titled Men Who Hate Women in it's native Sweden, and there's a reason for that. The film starts with Mikael Blomkvist (Nyqvist) being found guilty of libel. He chooses to leave his magazine, but isn't unemployed for long when he gets an offer from Henrik Vanger to search for his long missing niece. The most interesting character though, is Lisbeth Salandar (Rapace). Her description in the book seems uncastable, a tiny young woman with short hair, multiple piercings and the titular dragon tattoo (which looks totally awesome in the movie by the way); who knows how to handle herself in a fight and has the authorities believing she's mentally disabled when in fact she's almost a genius. Rapace doesn't look perfect for the role, but she manages to really embody the character, making Lisbeth seem more real than she does on the page at times.
Oplev makes some interesting choices in his adaptation. There's more implied violence than actual violence, we never see blood spurt from someone for example, but the effect is actually more horrifying. Still, despite the fact that terrible things happen to some women in this film, don't mistake me, this is not a misogynistic film by any means. It deals with a sensitive subject very well. Though slow at times, by the half way point when the movie begins to kick into high gear, you'll be riveted. The strength of this film lies in a combination of interesting characters and good story, Oplev knows what he is doing and focuses on the main plot. I did miss the dog from the book (though to be honest it's absence doesn't really effect the film). It's a very solid adaption of a great novel, and a plain old good film for anyone who hasn't read the book.
FINAL SCORE: 8/10