I think I’ve seen this movie before. It was called “Kiss the Girls,” or “Summer of Sam” or maybe “Seven.” I’m pretty sure Morgan Freeman was in it. A bunch of women were tortured, raped and murdered by a bible-obsessed male serial killer until a team of young and old detectives solved the case.
This time it’s set in Sweden. And it’s called “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” instead of the original Swedish title “Men who Hate Women.” And despite unlimited potential for two of the most fascinating, well-developed protagonists in current literary history, it’s pretty much another movie about men who hate women.
Based on the first book in the best-selling Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson, the “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” follows Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), a middle-aged journalist recently convicted of libel. Blomkvist finds himself in a career tough spot when he is hired by Henrik Vagner, wealthy patriarch to one of Sweden’s most famous industrialist families, to investigate the 40-year-old disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vagner. He enlists the help of Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), a young hacker goth chick with piercings, tattoos, a fierce intellect and even fiercer ass-kicking skills. Together they embark on the quest to solve Harriet’s disappearance, uncovering a slew of macabre family secrets along the way.
At 644 pages in paperback, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” screenplay adapters had their work cut out for them. The novel is packed with intricate details, dozens of characters, subplots and side plots and characters so fully analyzed, it makes for a gripping, engaging read. Until the serial killer crap comes up that is. Salander and Bloomkvist are such interesting personalities, I felt like they should have more interesting cases to investigate than another misogynistic serial killer. I wanted to hit Stieg Larsson over the head with a steel pipe, pull out his brains and scream, “Why did you waste your talent by going the serial killer route? It’s so overdone!” I couldn’t do this, of course, because Larsson tragically died after turning in the third manuscript of the trilogy.
The film adaptation does do a good job keeping all the necessary plot lines of the book while deleting minor characters and subplots. Rapace gives a solid, intense performance as Lisbeth Salander. Not to mention she’s physically perfect for the role,
Direction-wise, there were small gems that illustrated relationships, such as a car ride in which Salander switches the car stereo off and Blomkvist switches it back on. But there were also some weird lighting choices, like the lackluster lighting in Henrik Vagner’s office (ominous forewarning?) and the bright cafeteria lighting for a dungeon torture chamber (shock value?). There’s a scene where Blomkvist is searching through computer images of old negatives that was amazing. And then a few photograph and film montages that looked like they were out of a low budget History Channel documentary. So there’s good and there’s odd.
Be forewarned the film also delves into disturbing sexual crime. After all those Law & Order: SVU episodes, you’d think we’d all be used to pictures of mutilated bodies and dramatizations of sexual violations. Nope, it’s still disturbing.
Overall, the film is a well thought-out thriller. I just wish it hadn’t gone the Berkowitz-Bundy-Buffalo Bill route. The characters are so amazing I have high hopes for “The Girl who Played with Fire,” the next installment in the series. And just in case you are one of those viewers that will never get sick of serial killers, don’t fret. A Hollywood remake is already in the works, even with the Swedish version barely on the DVD shelf.
