The Story
The first film in a trilogy based on the Swedish, Award-Winning crime novel Man Som hatar kvinnor (English Translation: Men Who Hate Women) by Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo introduces Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) a journalist who is awaiting a jail sentence for libel who is contacted by an Uncle of the Vanger family who has been searching for his missing niece since her disappearence in 1966. The last images of her are at a parade in 1966 when she was 16 years old. Her Uncle believes someone in the family is to blame for her dissappearance as they were jealous of the known favoritism the two share. Having six months free before serving his sentence Mikael decides to take on the case.
Clues start surfacing in his computer from an outside source who has been hacking into his personal files. The source is easy to trace, so he tracks down the unlikely ally. It is the same investigator who had been hired by the man who his crime was committed against, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), the girl with the dragon tattoo. Together the two make their way to the Vanger estate to unveil the family secret that has been all but forgotten.
Characters
The character Lisbeth is based on a real girl the late author witnessed being gang raped when he was fifteen years old. Unable to forgive himself for not helping her, the theme of abuse against women has become an important key to the story in the ‘Millennium trilogy’. Lisbeth is a parolee who is being blackmailed with lies from her guardian for sexual favors as he is in control of all of her assets. The abuse from her past seems to follow her through life which motivates her to follow the trail of unsolved murders in hopes of discovering the missing woman.
The other characters come in the form of the Vanger family who, except for the Uncle, act suspicious when faced with the ordeal. The police feel disrespected as if the re-opening of the case is a mockery of their overall intelligence.
Effects/Gore
The movie could be looked at as a more mainstream rape-revenge story, although it is more complicated than just that. Still the revenge is as sweet as it is deserving with one man being scarred with his shame for life and another suffering what must be an extremely painful end in flames. I can’t get enough of the satisfaction of seeing characters like these suffer as they reflect the real monsters that walk amongst us in our society. The ‘Dragon Tattoo’ is cheesie looking but isn’t anything important to the story.
Final Headcount
Having known nothing about the book or the movie going into it, I was impressed with what I saw. In the begining it’s easy to become lost as their are a few stories interweaving and the sub-titles disappear too fast to read at a comfortable pace. The movie ties everything up nicely in the end and it all will make sense to you after the final act. Everything comes together almost too well though leaving no cliff hangers leading into the next movie. It literally gives no hint as to the direction the series will go next.
The U.S. remake of the same name is set for release December 2011, and will be directed by David Fincher. The remake will star Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.
