The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Year:  2011
Director:  David Fincher
Screenplay:  Steven Zaillian, based on the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Starring:  Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joley Richardson
Running Time:  158 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, crime, drama, mystery

This is the English language film adaptation of the best-selling novel by Steig Larsson, which was first published in 2005, and was already the subject of a 2009 Swedish film.

Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Craig) is hired by Henrik Vanger (Plummer) the wealthy, elderly patriarch of a large and powerful family, ostensibly to write his biography, but in reality to investigate the murder of his beloved neice, who disappeared almost forty years previously.  Vanger is convinced that one of the family killed her.  As he investigates, Blomkvist enlists the help of troubled computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Mara).  Together the two begin to discover some shocking secrets about the Vanger family.  Secrets that some would kill to keep hidden.

This is a very faithful adaptation of the novel.  Visually it is very impressive, with the bleak, wintery landscapes giving the film an almost dreamlike atmosphere.  The cast are uniformly brilliant, with Rooney Mara exceptional in the difficult role of Lisbeth Salander, who is already one of the most memorable characters in modern popular fiction.  The film also manages to condense a complex and long novel into a coherent film.  The film retains the Swedish setting of the original novel, but all the dialogue is English language, with the cast basically speaking in Swedish accents, which seems slightly bizarre.  Also the film moves at a fairly sedate pace, although there are sudden bursts of violence, a couple of which are genuinely shocking and disturbing.  

However, it is a fierce and powerful piece of work, with a superb visual sense and would be worth watching just for Rooney Mara's performance alone.

Rooney Mara is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Year: 2009
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Screenplay: Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg, based on the novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Sven-Bertil Taube, Peter Haber, Marika Lagercrantz, Lena Endre, Bjorn Granath, Ingvar Herdwall, Peter Andersson, Tehilla Blad
Running Time: 152 minutes, 180 minute extended version
Genre: Crime, thriller

Summary: Mykael Blomkvist (Nyqvist), an investigative journalist with controversial magazine Millennium, loses a high-profile libel case and finds his reputation in tatters and his career potentially ruined. Deciding to take a leave of absence from the magazine, Blomkvist is contacted an extremely wealthy and powerful businessman, Henrik Vanger (Taube), head of the family run Vanger Group. Vanger is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his beloved neice, Harriet, some forty years earlier. He believes that Harriet was murdered by a member of their own family, and he wants Blomkvist to go over the investigation again in the vain hope that he might come up with some new leads or previously overlooked clue. Blomkvist agrees to the assignment.
However, he learns that his investigation is being closely monitored. Lisbeth Salander (Rapace), an expert computer hacker and investigator, who was hired to do a background check on Blomkvist prior to Vanger hiring him, becomes fascinated by his investigation. Fiercely intelligent, strong, uncompromising and not caring a thing about society's rules and conventions, Salander helps Blomkvist with his investigation. However, as they get closer to the truth it becomes apparent that they have powerful and ruthless enemies who will stop at nothing to keep the dark secrets hidden.

Opinions: The Millennium trilogy by the late Swedish journalist and author Steig Larsson (which consists of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2005), The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2007)) has been one of the publishing sensations of the past decade. The books have sold millions of copies worldwide. The three books were adpated as a six-part Swedish miniseries (each novel being broadcast in two episodes.
This film is an edited version of the first two episodes of the mini-series. The film follows the storyline of the novel very closely and it does not suffer in any way from having it's origins on the small screen. Michael Nyqvist is engaging and likeable as the crusading journalist Blomkvist, but the film belongs to Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, "the girl with the dragon tattoo" of the title, making her both terrifying and sympathetic, sometimes at the same time. She also manages to make the extremely uncompromising and antisocial Salander consistently likeable, with an icily granite stare to rival Clint Eastwood's.
The film looks beautiful making good use of the Swedish countryside, and both script and direction keep a tight control of the material while successfully retaining Larsson's labyrinthine narrative.
Fans of the books will doubtless love the film, and it also manages to be engaging and entertaining for newcomers to the story.
An English language remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara is due for release in December 2011.



Noomi Rapace in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest" by Stieg Larsson

Year of Publication: 2007
Number of Pages: 746 pages
Genre: Crime, thriller

Summary: Antisocial computer-hacker Lisbeth Salander is in hospital after being shot in the head. However, as she slowly recuperates her problems are only beginning as she finds herself placed under arrest. To make matters worse some extremely powerful people will stop at nothing to make sure that she is silenced permanently. Her one chance lies with Mikael Blomkvist and the journalists of Millennium magazine who are determined to prove her innocence and unravel the shadowy conspiracy which has dominated Salander's life and which reaches to the highest echelons of the Swedish state.

Opinions: This book forms the third and final part of the best-selling Millennium Trilogy by Swedish journalist and author Stieg Larsson (following The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2005) and The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006)). This book follows on directly from the previous volume and like that book is less a conventional crime mystery than a complex conspiracy thriller. As with the other volumes in the trilogy, this book deals with political and social corruption and, most notably, male violence against women. The novel, the original Swedish title of which translates as "The Castle in the Air That Was Blown Up" ("a castle in the air" is a Swedish phrase which refers to a pipe dream), is an involving and powerful thriller, and fans of the series are sure to love it. It's well written and the epic cast of characters and large number of incidents are well handled and, despite being a long book, the pace is kept up.
Stieg Larsson himself did not live to enjoy the enormous success of the Millennium Trilogy. He died suddenly of a heart attack in November 2004 shortly after he delivered the manuscripts of the three novels to his publisher. Apparently, Larsson left an unfinished manuscript for another book in the series and notes for several more volumes.
If you've never encountered the Millennium Trilogy before they are well worth checking out and in my opinion, despite the fact that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the most well known, the best books in the series are definitely the second and third.

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson

Year of Publication: 2006
Number of Pages: 569 pages
Genre: Crime, thriller,

Summary: When a young journalist comes to Millennium magazine with an expose about prostitution in which a number of very high-profile men will be named and shamed, celebrated crusading journalist and Millennium publisher Mikael Blomkvist jumps at the chance to help him. However the journalist and his student girlfriend (who is writing a thesis on prostitution) are found murdered in their home. The evidence points to enigmatic computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. Given Salander's propensity for violence and apparent anti-social tendencies, she immediately becomes the target of a nationwide police search and media frenzy. Blomkvist, however, believes that she is innocent and is determined to track her down first. Salander is also being sought by some highly dangerous indiviuals who will stop at nothing to silence her for good.

Opinions: This book is the second part of the celebrated Millennium Trilogy from Swedish journalist and author Stieg Larsson (the trilogy began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2005) and concluded with The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2007)), all of which were poublished after Larsson's death. The novel picks up about a year after the events of the first book and it carries on and explores many of the themes and plotlines of the previous book. However, while the first novel was pretty much a detective story this one widens it's scope into police procedural and conspiracy thriller. Many of Larsson's themes from the first book resurface, in particular male violence against women and institutional corruption. As with the first book there are times when Larsson's determination to deliver his message seems to get in the way of the story, but mostly it is a pacy thriller, despite it's length. Larsson was good at documenting the intricacies of an investigation whether by police or journalists without it seeming dull, and he could also deliver some great action scenes, although one of the book's villains, a giant who is immune to pain, could have stepped whole and breathing from a James Bond book.
The book was turned into a film in Sweden in 2009.

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

Year of Publication: 2005
Number of Pages: 533 pages
Genre: Crime, thriller

Summary: Henrik Vanger is a very wealthy businessman and the elderly patriarch of the large and powerful Vanger family. However he is haunted by the unsolved disappearance of a sixteen year old relative 37 years earlier.
Mikael Blomkvist is a journalist and co-editor of the crusading, political Millennium magazine. However his career and the magazine's future are in serious jeopardy after he loses a very high profile libel case against a billionaire indutrialist. Vanger offers Blomkvist a job writing a history of the Vanger family, while in reality he is to investigate the disapperance.
As Blomkvist finds himself drawn into the dark secrets of the family he enlists the help of Lisabeth Salander, an enigmatic and dangerous investigator and genius computer hacker.

Opinions: This book is the first part of the Millennium Trilogy (the others being The Girl Who Played with Fire (2006) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (2007)), which journalist Steig Larsson wrote in his spare time after work, and the manuscripts of which were delivered to the publisher shortly before Larsson's death in November 2004. The books have all been massive international bestsellers and, certainly on the strength of this first book, the hype is justified. The book is a complex and dark detective thriller, which weaves together various storylines and many characters. The original Swedish title translates as Men Who Hate Women and one of the key elements of the book is Larsson's abhorrance of violence against women, as well as corruption in politics and big business. It does have very strong messages, which occasionally threaten to overrun the story, but usually it succeeds in being able to deliver it's message while still delivering a consistently entertaining story.
There are plenty of memorable characters, especially the girl with the dragon tattoo herself, tough antiheroine Lisbeth Salander, as well as the idealistic ladies man Mikael Blomkvist.
An absorbing and genuinely powerful and at times shocking thriller. For the most part it is well paced but the story does drag a bit in places, also the plot has a few too many coincidences, but the complaints are pretty minor.
The novel, along with it's sequels, was adapted as a film in it's native Sweden, starring Michael Nyqvist as Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Salander. An English language remake is due for release in 2011 directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig as Blomkvist and Rooney Mara as Salander.