Movie Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Critically lauded over the past year, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a thrilling mystery tale that touches base on themes of darkness and despair, but at the same time manages to create characters intriguing enough to keep you glued to what’s happening, even if you don’t always want to look. Directed by Niels Arden Oplev, this Swedish murder mystery tries to be more complex than it really is, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that the movie is any less interesting.
Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is one of the country’s most popular reporters, who has recently been charged with libel and sentenced to six months in prison. Before he is set to serve his sentence, he is hired by Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), head of the powerful Vanger Group, to solve the 40 year-old mystery of his niece’s disappearance. There hasn’t been any leads since then, although he does receive a framed plant each year on her birthday, each one being from a different corner of the globe than the last.
It isn’t until Mikael gets help from hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) that the movie kick into the next gear. We meet her at the beginning of the movie as she has her own conflicts to deal with, which includes gathering information on Blomkvist for Vanger. Despite having a troubled past, Salander is a very talented hacker/investigator who is able to find just about any information on any person she wishes, which proves to be very helpful for Blomkvist. Their journey is a thrilling one, with new obstacles popping up that prevent them from solving their mystery. Although the tension throughout the movie stays intense enough to keep you in the story, you can’t help but feel that the ending is rather anti-climatic. The film tends to give away too much information at the beginning an its attempt for improved narrative, and it definitely takes away from how effective the third act should be. I also felt that they could have went deeper into Mikael’s personal life: Salander knows everything about Blomkvist, and we have a pretty good understanding of her past, but we are somewhat left in the dark with Blomkvist.
Most people will come away from this movie talking about the performance of Noomi Rapace. She displays a wonderful variety of emotions and reactions that keep her character alive, to the point that you are almost surprised by each thing she does. Just when you think you have her figured out, she proves you wrong. In lesser hands, I could have easily seen this role becoming a dull and lifeless performance like Bella from Twilight. Michael Nyqvist is good enough for what the movie asks for him, although the character doesn’t seem to struggle with anything internally. The rest of the performances are simply okay. They pop up every now and then, but the focus of the movie stays on the two main characters.
An interesting note is how much this movie reminded me of a couple different movies. The Ghost Writer was a movie of both a similar story and tone, although the tone of Dragon Tattoo was much darker. Ghost Writer was one of my favorite movies of the early part of the year, but I definitely wouldn’t have such a warm reaction had I watched Dragon Tattoo first. Another movie that I thought it compared well to, but as more of a companion piece, would be The White Ribbon. You probably wouldn’t realize it while watching the movie, but after it ended, I couldn’t help how well the two fit together, even though they are completely different movies.
Although it has it’s fair share of plot mishaps, this is still one of the better crime thrillers that you will find nowadays. A wonderful female lead performance paves the way through this dark and sometimes relentless murder mystery which will keep you hooked and wanting for more. Luckily, this is indeed the beginning of a trilogy. And with other recent movies like Let the Right One In, there could possibly be a film movement going on in Sweden, much like that of Romania several years ago.
B+
Notes: Rated R for disturbing violent content including rape, grisly images, sexual material, nudity and language. 152 minutes. Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel.
21 Comments
I LOVED this movie. One of the best movies of the year. Can not wait to watch the next two films.
Yeah. I’m eagerly anticipating the sequels, especially since it sounds like they go deeper into the character side.
Sorry to disapoint you Warren but the two sequels are not even close to the first one. Its mostly due to the source material so if you love the books you may disagree with me.
Yeah the two sequels aren’t as good as the first one (I’ve only seen the second one but I have read the series and agree with you on this one) but I DO enjoy the rest of the series for what it is. The mystery and story isn’t as deep but the attention to the source material as well as the action and Lisbeth’s character development are all still really good.
I thought this was actually a pretty good movie. I loved the whole mystery element of it with Mikael (I’m butchering his name probably) and Lisbeth is just awesome. I’ve been trying to write my review for days but have problems putting it into words. Awesome movie though.
I didn’t fin the chracter of Mikael as interesting as Lisbeth. And unfortunately, Daniel Craig has been cast as that role in Fincher’s remake. Ugh.
I find it puzzling why they’re remaking this again within a short time period. Can’t comment on Craig’s casting since I haven’t seen (probably never) this movie though.
More than the whole mystery, I was pretty much hooked to Lisbeth’s character. I mean, if you thought the best of the film was her, and wanted to know more about her, you’ll probably like the 2nd and 3rd film, which lack a lot of the ‘cinematic’ feel on Dragon – someone told me it was a TV Movie? Not so sure. Anyway, the trilogy as a whole left me wanting to know everything about Lisbeth, so I bought the books. xD
You are right! The intention with the sequels was originally to do a mini series for TV. When the first one became such a success they decided to edit them into two features for cinema release.
In Sweden they are finally released as they were intended to be seen on TV both on tv-broadcast and on DVD.
Also the budget and production value was much lower on the two sequels than on the first one.
Sounds great. It’ll be interesting to see more about Lisbeth, and who gets the role in the Fincher remake as well.
I didn’t like it very much. It was fine, and the girl who played Lisbeth was fantastic, but otherwise, didn’t do much for me.
still the strongest film of the year for me, by leaps and bounds. Nothing has come close yet. The sequel…eh — not nearly as good.
I enjoyed this quite a lot and B+ sounds about right Red. The best thing about it is that the main characters (especially Lisbeth) are really enigmatic and interesting, perhaps even more than the investigation they are conducting. This is a change from most crime mysteries where more often than not, there isn’t as much focus on the investigators themselves.
That’s precisely why I think Craig is too high profile to put in the role of Blomkvist. Sure he’ll fit the part but if the movie isn’t really about him, why put someone you’ll more likely be looking to see something from when the focus is so not supposed to be on him?
It is the same reason that Bale was the wrong choice to play opposite Depp in Public Enemies…
Indeed, I’m not too fond of Craig playing Blomquist. Hollywood loves its stars but the best thing for this movie would have been to get two little known actors or a character actor to play Blomquist and an unknown actress to play Lisbeth.
Sometimes casting an unknown actually works better for the movie as people would just focus on the story. Alas, I’m sure the producers want big names to get butts to fill seats.
I saw this film recently. It’s a tough pill to swallow with the violence and all that. I kinda turned me off. The first hour ran a bit too slow in my eyes. When the two storylines came together, that’s when I was into the movie. The ending was a bit anti-climatic.
I already can’t wait to Fincher’s version for this story.
I already can’t wait to watch Fincher’s version for this story.
I kinda agree that this movie is in the B range… it was very good but had the potential to be a lot better!
This is a really good film that suffers from the fact that everyone outside the protagonist is not that interesting. The scenes without Lisbeth just aren’t as good and I think the plotting is weak in some places.
I don’t think this film diminishes The Ghost Writer at all. Whereas this film is very aggressive in its tone, I think The Ghost Writer is far more subtle and slow in the dread it is building to. It’s two very different approaches to the same genre.
Trackbacks