RECENT WATCHES: The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)

When David Fincher's “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” disappointed at the box office, plans to move forward with adaptations of “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” were quickly abandoned. (Much to the chagrin of Rooney Mara, who seemed eager to reprise the character.) Instead, Sony decided to go in a different direction. After Stieg Larsson's death, author David Lagercrantz would be chosen to continue the literary adventures of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. “The Girl in the Spider's Web” was the first of these new novels. Presumably to cash in on the hype of this new release, Fede Alvarez would be hired to direct an adaptation. The lead roles would be recast with Claire Foy and Sverrir Gudnason, the film acting as a reboot of sorts of the would-be franchise. 

Since we last saw her, Lisbeth Salander has become a for-hire hacker and vigilante. A program architect named Balder hires her to retrieve Firefall, a program he designed for the N.S.A. that can hack any nuclear code in the world. Lisbeth successfully steals Firefall but cannot crack its cryptic interface. A group of mercenaries nearly kill Lisbeth when they steal Firefall back, before murdering Balder and framing her for the crime. Salander once again enlists the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who quickly uncovers the responsible party: Camilla Salander, Lisbeth's twin sister who took over their gangster father's business. Now a race is on to retrieve Balder's genius son, who knows the secret to unlocking Firefall. 

“The Girl in the Spider's Web” sets out to refit Lisbeth Salander for the modern cinematic landscape of superhero blockbusters. Her introductory scene has her visiting justice, as a vigilante in face-paint, on a rich businessman who abuses women. The film introduces a colorful supervillain for her to fight, in the form of an evil twin. Camilla even has a contrasting visual design to Lisbeth, with blonde hair and bright colors. Her hacking abilities get turned into a superpowers of sorts, as she somehow uses it to deploy the airbags in a pursuer's car at one point. Much like James Bond, Salander is chasing after a world-breaking MacGuffin. The bad guy's goals is nothing more than to plunge the world into chaos. The film even includes an elaborate Bond-ian opening credits sequence, though it skips a chart-topping theme song. Another Bond-like touch has Lisbeth being placed into a death trap, via an asphyxiating fetish vacuum bag.  

Trying to squeeze this character into this mold is, admittedly, kind of a weird choice. Even if they were pulp at heart, Stieg Larsson's books attempted to address serious topics like government corruption, sex trafficking, and fascism. They were talky mysteries with a lot of detail-choked digressions. “The Girl in the Spider's Web,” notably, doesn't seem to be about anything more than its contrived story beats. Then again, the movie makes little attempts to connect itself to any previous version of these characters. The events of “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” are vaguely referenced, I think, but this film outright contradicts what we previously earned about Lisbeth's childhood. Millennium Magazine plays such a small role and Lisbeth and Blomkvist's relationship is strained, for some reason. The film floats in this weird space, not quite a sequel and not quite a reboot. It's distracting. 

You can debate the ethics of turning the Millennium Trilogy into an action movie. Yet at least director Fede Alvarez makes sure it's all pretty good action. There's a shoot-out, a big explosion, and a motorcycle chase across a frozen lake all within the first half-hour. An intense fight scene with an intimidating henchman in a bathroom recalls the tense scenes of violence in cramped location in Alvarez' “Evil Dead” remake and “Don't Breathe.” The highlight of the movie is the big car chase that follows, which concludes with a tense stand-off on a bridge. The climax involves another vehicular stunt, when a car is sent spinning through the air into some trees. Alvarez and cinematographer Pedro Luque insures the movie looks good too. The snowy whites of Sweden are emphasizes, along with many other bold color choices.

Lisbeth Salander is the kind of role that attracts a certain breed of actress: Petite but intense. Claire Foy proves to be a good choice in that regard. She has the ability to project a vulnerability behind the steely veneer of stoicism. Honestly, I like her a little better than Roony Mara, though she still trails behind Noomi Rapace. If the reboot finds a capable Lisbeth, it completely drops the ball with Blomkvist. Sverrir Gudnason seems way too young in the part and has absolutely no charisma or screen presence at all. He's a complete blank. Better are Sylvia Hoeks, sinister as Camilla, and LaKeith Stanfield as the NSA agent who weaves in and out of the story. His role is probably unnecessary but Stanfield at least brings some attitude to the part.

“The Girl in the Spider's Web” did not do very well at the box office, grossing only 35 million dollars against a 43 million dollar budget. It seems the studio's desperate attempt to turn Lisbeth Salander into an action hero was all for naught. The literary continuation of Larsson's story proved more successful, as Lagercrantz has written two more novels about Salander and Blomkvist. Perhaps American cinema-goers just aren't that interested in the grim thrills that these characters are built around. “The Girl in the Spider's Web” does a few things well but ultimately can't cohere into a satisfying whole. [6/10]

Director Report Card: David Fincher (2011)

10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Considering its status as a international best-seller which already launched a successful series of films overseas, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood studios made their own adaptation of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy of novels. Pre-production on an American “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” actually started as early as 2009, before the Swedish films were even released over here. Trying to get David Fincher to direct this movie seems like such a natural choice, you almost can't imagine the director going for it. Gritty, noir-ish murder-mysteries with extreme themes are so far within Fincher's wheelhouse, he's almost too obvious a choice. Obvious or not, Fincher would sign on quickly and the movie was fast-tracked for a 2011 awards season release date. 

Mikael Blomkvist, head writer and co-owner of Millennium Magazine, has recently been convicted for libel after publishing supposedly false accusations against millionaire Hans-Erik Wennerström. This is when elderly industrialist Henrik Vanger hires him to investigate the murder of his beloved niece, Harriet. She disappeared in 1966 while a car wreck blocked off the entire island. Blomkvist goes about investigating the sordid history of the family. Blomkvist soon teams up with Lisbeth Salander, the mysterious computer hacking prodigy who did a background check on him. Together, they dig into the past and discover that Harriet Vanger is not the only dead girl in the family. Among the businessmen and Nazis is a serial killer.

David Fincher continues to have the best trailer editor in Hollywood. On the footsteps of “The Social Network's” award-winning trailer, came “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's” similarly stunning trailer. Beginning with a gate opening, the audience follows the snowy and desolate path towards the isolated Vanger estate. This journey is quickly intercut with a series of split-second moments from the movie. The entire thing is scored to the driving melody of Karen O.'s cover of “The Immigrant Song,” which suggests the Nordic setting and adds an intense burst of dreary power. The same song plays over the movie's expressionistic title sequence, where computer wires, faces, hands, flowers, and the titular tattoo form out of black tar, among images that suggest the themes of misogyny and fascism the film will explore. Both certainly make a hell of an impression. 

As an adaptation, Fincher's film sticks pretty closely to Larsson's source novel. The movie even chooses to keep the location as Sweden, even though everyone is speaking English. It keeps a lot of the material that was cut out of the Swedish film. (Or, at least, the shorter version I reviewed.) It includes the cat Mikael briefly adopts while on the island. He travels more, meeting an obscure cousin of Harriet's in London. The surveillance work Lisbeth does is maintained. The financial problems the magazine faces are covered, as is Henrik becoming its sponsor. Yet the film also simplifies the timeline of Larsson's story. Mikael doesn't have to serve jail time in the middle of the story. Only his credibility is destroyed by the lawsuit. There's fewer leads involved in the investigation, fewer names to remember. It's a faithful but pragmatic adaptation.

The biggest change Fincher's film makes to the source material is fixing Mikael Blomkvist. The literary Blomkvist, too often, came across as wish-fulfillment for Stieg Larsson. Here was a super-star journalist, who could bring down empires with just his words, whose magazine is so important that it often makes national news. He's also completely irresistible to women, embarking on at least two or three different affairs. (Aside from the regular hook-ups he has with his editor.) Also also, he has military training that saves his ass a few times. The Swedish films sought to fix this by making Blomkvist into a sad sack. The American movie goes the funnier route of making him kind of an idiot. Oh, he's a brilliant investigator but he survives the attempt on his life by blind luck. Later, he walks right into the killer's lair. He's still sleeping with some beautiful women but he's played by Daniel Craig, so that's pretty believable. 

Casting the role of Lisbeth Salander was a big deal. Every waif in Hollywood was up for the part but Fincher ultimately chose Rooney Mara, clearly impressed by her small role in “The Social Network.” Mara had big Dock Martins to fill, following Noomi Rapace's star-making take on the character. Mara's take on the character is less impulsive than Rapace's, whose vengeful furies are more premeditated than spontaneous. There's a colder quality to her, more alien-like in the way she regards the world. She doesn't let her vulnerability shine through nearly as much. Rapace was as if the character step right off the page. Rooney Mara's take is a different interpretation and a pretty good one. She's compelling and strong-willed.  

Inevitably, Mikael and Lisbeth fall into bed together in every version of the story. The novel and previous film had Salander do this as one of those decisions that nobody but her understood. Fincher's film has the two hook up right after he's nearly killed. The sex is seemingly a way for them to mutually unwind. From then on, every time they have sex, Lisbeth initiates it. She is in full control of her desires, of this relationship. Moreover, Mara and Craig have strong chemistry, his quirky humor bouncing off her ice cold exterior in a compelling way. It's the first time in any version of this story were you actually buy that these two are genuinely interested in each other. 

Sadly, if there's any way Fincher's “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is less compelling than its Swedish sibling, it is the mystery itself. Hewing closer to the book in this regard, much of the investigation is devoted to people re-reading old documents. Both Mikael and Lisbeth spend a lot of time sorting through the archives, looking at ancient photographs over. Digging through the details meticulously, they forge a history of violence via dedicated research. And it's only so interesting to watch play out. The Swedish film focused on interviewing leads and looking at crime scenes, which was a little more cinematic than Lisbeth sitting in a library and looking at piles of old photos. 

My biggest qualm with the previous versions of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” on both the page and the screen, was how it used women being sexually assaulted and murdered to prop up what was ultimately a pulpy murder-mystery. The 2011 “Girl” doesn't change the story. Lisbeth is still brutally raped by her legal guardian. She still uncovers a history of women being molested and murdered by depraved men. Fincher insures these reveals are as disturbing as possible. As the incident with Nils Bjurman begins, Fincher keeps showing a closing door and panning back, as if he's going to cut away. He doesn't. The resulting scene is incredibly disturbing and intense. If Fincher's film is going to cover these topics, he's going to make sure it's as horrible as possible.

Lisbeth's revenge on her rapist is as glorious as ever, paying evil unto evil in the most ironic way possible. Yet the film is aspiring to be a little more than a rape/revenge story. The remake focuses more on the connection between fascism and misogyny. The Vanger family history is littered with Nazis. Harriet's father and the eventual killer are revealed as serial predators that use women, kill them, and dispose of their corpses. One of them is a religious fanatic. Blomkvist's archenemy Wennerström is a rich criminal working to undermine the credibility of the free press. There is a definite link between these evils, the abuse of women operating as a part of authoritarian ideology. I wish the film made more of a point of this but it does the work.

Fincher, of course, works hard to elevate the material in other ways too. He directs the hell out of this movie. The frozen isolation of the northern setting is emphasized, the audience feeling the chill in the air. The urban scenes have the gritty, sickly grime that you've come to expect from this director. Nobody does this kind of thing better than Fincher. The surveillance footage of Lisbeth glaring into cameras, or the sweaty and sickly scenery as she takes her revenge, is so perfectly disquieting. The lair of the killer is shot in a sickly white, sterile and unnervingly so. The Swedish “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” had a hell of a climax, which the remake makes sure to maintain. The psycho killer's murder dungeon, the noose around the neck, the car chase and explosion are all shot and edited like gangbusters. Only an earlier fight scene on a subway is shakily shot and edited. I don't know what was up with that.

While this film is clearly a star vehicle for Craig and Mara, a very strong supporting cast is assembled as well. Robin Wright has a quiet sensuality and subtle intelligence as Blomkvist's business partner and regular girlfriend. Christopher Plummer could not be more perfectly cast as Henrik, an ancient patriarch. He approaches the long and controversial history of his family with a sardonic humor because it's the only way he can cope. Stellan Skarsgård is well cast as Martin Vanger, as he balances a charming side with a sinister undercurrent. Though the eventual reveal concerning that character is still a little too easy to guess.

Fincher's “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” maintains a lot of the problems of the source material. It's also too long, running five minutes more than the Swedish film, including the extended denouncement that puts every single plot thread to bed. This version does not feature a lot of belabored set-up for a sequel. Which turned out to be a good thing. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” came out around Christmas of 2011 – the story is book-ended by the holiday – and sold itself as the “feel bad movie” of the holiday. Unsurprisingly, family audiences on Christmas vacation did not flock to a grim thriller full of graphic sexual assault and murder. While there was initial hopes that adaptations of “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” would follow, it was not to be. Both better and weaker than the Swedish original, it's still an involving film with some fantastic sequences built around an unforgettable leading lady. [Grade: B]

RECENT WATCHES: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy became a global literary phenomenon by combining hot button real world political issues, with page-turner plotting and topping it off with an unforgettable goth girl protagonist. Of course, Larsson's untimely passing meant that the true master plan for his characters and their story would never exactly be told. Of his intended ten novels, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” is the last one Larsson would complete before his death. The film adaptation would follow in December of 2009, a mere three months after the film version of “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” (Making this one of the shortest gaps between sequels.)

After being shot in the head by her evil dad – and subsequently attempting to kill him with an axe – Lisbeth Salander is airlifted to a hospital. Her father, a defected Russian spy a secret sector of the Swedish government has promised to protect, is kept in the same hospital. After Zala threatens to reveal those secrets, he is killed by an elderly assassin who then turns the gun on himself. The Sector uses its resources to engineered a legal case against Lisbeth, to get her locked away forever and prevent the truth from ever coming out. Mikael Blomkvist and the staff of Millennium do everything they can to ensure Lisbeth's story is actually told. Meanwhile, Ronald Niedermann – Lisbeth's towering Neo-Nazi half-brother – still stalks the streets of Stockholm. 

The first two Millennium films told stories about the exploitation of women. Depending on your perspective, this was either an attempt to bring this important topic to light or a way to make pulpy thrillers seem more relevant than they actually were. While essentially still about that, especially after Lisbeth's rape by her legal guardian becomes a plot point here, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” is more squarely about government corruption... But not real world government corruption. The third in the series moves totally into the realm of conspiracy thriller, as a top secret sect of elderly agents are revealed to be behind all the woes in Lisbeth Salander's life. I guess it was inevitable that these stories would grow more outlandish as the series progressed.

All three of the Swedish Millennium films are breathlessly faithful to the source material, getting things down to a semi-manageable length by removing Larsson's more extraneous subplots. That was a big problem with “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.” The book rambled off on extensive digressions about the history of Cold War Sweden, intrigue at Millennium magazine, and Blomkvist getting a new hot bodybuilder girlfriend. All this shit is cut out of the movie and it improves things considerably. Erika Berger, Blomkvist's other girlfriend and editor at Millennium, being stalked and harassed is tied more concretely tied in with the main plot. Niedermann, who weaved in and out of the book at random intervals, is given more to do here, more concretely becoming the film's primary antagonist. 

This greatly improves upon a novel with a painfully slow pace, making for an overall punchier movie... But there's still a problem. See, Lisbeth herself is once again sidelined for most of “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.” This is an inevitable result of her recovering in a hospital from a wound that should've been fatal. After that, the film becomes a legal thriller, as the bad guys attempt to build up evidence that Lisbeth is delusional. The film does everything it can to make this set-up exciting. Watching Lisbeth tear through the holes in the prosecutor's story is pretty satisfying. There's also a sequence where Blomkvist and Berger are nearly machine gunned while at a restaurant. Yet there's only so much that can be done with a largely stationary story.

Once the legal proceedings are out of the way, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest” can move towards an exciting finale. The confrontation between Lisbeth and Niedermann is an especially tense one. She's a rail thin, five foot tall punk rocker and he's a seven-foot tall Aryan psychopath who literally can not feel pain. (The producers originally wanted Dolph Lundgren for the part, incredibly on-the-nose casting that would've been Lundgren's first role in his native country in years. The more-than-capable Mikael Spreitz was cast instead.) Naturally, Lisbeth can outsmart her brawny opponent, a satisfying match-up to watch. Daniel Alfredson's direction has improved since the second film and this showdown looks nicely atmospheric.

After that compelling conclusion, "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" abruptly ends. Presumably the author had a more complete ending in mind for Salander and Blomkvist some day. The terse passing of words and nods, something clearly unsaid between them, will have to do. More satisfying than the middle chapter, the final entry in the original Millennium trilogy still trails behind the first Lisbeth Salander adventure. No matter how fascinating Salander may be, perhaps she still worked best as simply a component in a larger pulp story. [6/10]

RECENT WATCHES: The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)

Obviously, when the decision was made to adapt one part of Stieg Larsson's Millennium novels, the decision was made to adapt all of it. The three movies were clearly filmed back-to-back, the cast moving from one part to the next in quick succession. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” was released in Sweden in February of 2009. “The Girl Who Played with Fire” would follow in September of the same year. Clearly, the producers of the trilogy were eager to capitalize on Lisbeth Salander fever while the iron was hot. While the initial entry in the series was popular with audiences and critics, opinion on the follow-ups are more divided.

Following her investigation into the Vanger family, super-hacker Lisbeth Salander retreats to the Caribbean with the millions she stole from a corrupt businessman. The death of her mother has her return to Sweden. At the same time, Mikael Blomkvist's Millennium Magazine is preparing a special issue all about sex trafficking. Several prominent men in the Swedish government are to be named as johns. That's before the writers of the article are murdered. Lisbeth is seemingly the perpetrator of the crime, though Blomkvist believes she's been framed. As he attempts to clear her name, he uncovers a mystery circling around a mysterious figure known as “Zala.” 

Though she got title billing in the English printing, Lisbeth Salander was just one of the protagonists in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” We can only speculate on his motivations now, but it seems to me that Larsson was probably aware of her status as the most interesting character in the book. He decided to focus the next two novels entirely around her origin story. Unfortunately, both the literary and cinematic “Girl Who Played with Fire” go about this in a pretty awkward manner. The majority of Lisbeth's personal history is explained in two scenes, where old guys expound on her past and parentage to Blomkvist. Exposition like this was heavy-handed on the page and is even more egregious on the screen.

There is another problem inherent in any version of “The Girl Who Played with Fire.” The first movie and book had a page-turning mystery at the center of its story, a decades-old disappearance and string of murders that couldn't help but draw the reader/viewer in. The sequel can not come up with an equally compelling mystery, attempting to center the plot around the question of “Who is Zala?” The answer to this question is a lot easier for the audience to guess and the investigation, which mostly revolves around simply talking to people, is not as involving. Much like the previous film, this story uses a string of raped and abused women merely as plot devices in a plot ultimately about something else entirely. (No matter how much the book and movie clearly want to be about exposing the dark truths around sex trafficking.)

For the second installment, director Niels Arden Oplev would trade off with Daniel Alfredson. Aside from being the brother of Tomas Alfredson, Daniel is probably best known for extensive work in Swedish television. This probably explains why “The Girl Who Played with Fire” feels so much like a TV movie. Granted, it's not necessarily a bad looking film. Alfredson makes sure to include lots of orange colors in many scenes, pointing towards the inferno referenced in the title. Yet the presentation here is largely pretty flat and plain. This is most apparent during the movie's fight scenes, which are clumsily framed and stiffly edited. The fisticuffs between a boxer and the movie's towering secondary villain are shot from weirdly distant angles and feature some extremely awkward slow-motion. 

A lot of the problems with “The Girl Who Played with Fire” are inherent in its plot. Long stretches of the story removes Lisbeth from the plot, focusing on side characters like her girlfriend or famous boxer Paolo Roberto. (A rare example of a notable figure appearing in a fictional book and then playing himself in the film adaptation.) Likewise, the entire story keeps Salander and Blomkvist apart from each other, removing their chemistry from the plot altogether. The movie only really comes to life when Lisbeth finally gets in on the action herself. When outsmarting a pair of bikers and, most notably, when finally confronting Zala herself. “The Girl Who Played with Fire” has a strong climax, where Lisbeth's indomitable will to survive has her crawl back to life from the brink of death and begin swinging an axe around.

Both Larsson's book and Alfredson's film adaptation function as the gawky middle chapter in a three part story. It even ends on a cliffhanger, feeling less like a complete story in its own right and more like the first half of one. Though the movie is something of an improvement over the book, as it clips out a number of extraneous subplots focused on the police detectives that enter the story and the characters' sex lives. Noomi Rapace is still a captivating heroine and Michael Nyqvist does a better job of making Mikael Blomkvist seem like less of a wiener. Yet “The Girl Who Played with Fire” can only be accepted as a middling sequel. [5/10]

RECENT WATCHES: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Swedish journalist Stieg Larsson, known for his coverage of right-wing extremism and his socialist politics, died unexpectedly at the age of fifty in 2004. His friends and family say he barely slept and subsisted largely on coffee and fast food, which might explain his passing so young. Larsson left behind a trilogy of books, the first three parts of an intended decalogy, which were publish posthumously. Known as the Millennium Trilogy, the series became a best-seller in Sweden. When published in English, it became a world-wide success. Film adaptations would quickly follow, all three being released in 2009. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” would debut on American theater screens shortly afterwards, which is when I first became hooked on Larsson's characters and story.

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist, head writer at the controversial Millennium magazine, has been convicted in a libel suit after writing an apparently fallacious expose on a millionaire named  Wennerström. Blomkvist insists on his innocence but prepares to face his sentence anyway. At this point, the head of the famous industrialist Vanger family hires Mikael. In 1966, Henrik Vanger's beloved niece disappeared, while the island was blocked off. Henrik is convinced she was murdered and that her killer is still alive. Blomkvist soon teams up with Lisbeth Salander, the mysterious and anti-social – but utterly brilliant – hacker that has been trailing him. Together, the two uncover a serial killer who has been active for decades. 

Stieg Larsson was not an especially great novelist but he knew how to put together a page-turner. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” both the novel and the movie, present an irresistible mystery. Vanger repeatedly points out that nobody could've gotten in or off the island on that day. He's had forty years to endlessly rehash the evidence. We are presented with a worthy selection of scumbag suspects, all of them greedy industrialists or literal Nazis. It's a compelling scenario to start with. When Mikael does manage to uncover new evidence, via an old photograph, and has to track down a corresponding photograph from the same day, you are drawn in even more. Watching Mikael and Lisbeth dig through the clues and come out with a solution is a lot of fun. “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” in its literary form, was almost a textbook example of an airport read. The movie maintains that quality.

I mean, assuming you can stomach all the rape. The English translation of Larsson's original book title is “Men Who Hate Women.” Lisbeth is attacked by men in a subway, which is merely a predecessor to a more extreme abuse: Her legal guardian sexually assaults her in his office before brutally raping her on a later visit. This is depicted in graphic detail, the focus on her anguished face. Later, as Mikael and Lisbeth discover a serial killer is at work around the Vangers, they uncover photos of numerous dead girls. Their mutilated, usually nude corpses are shown on-screen. The film is obviously trying to make some sort of point about misogyny, about how men in power abuse women as easily as they breathe. Lisbeth's rapist and the sexist, anti-semantic serial killer both get what's coming to them. Yet whether you feel this justifies parading tortured, raped women around to spruce up a typical murder-mystery is really a matter of personal taste.  

What “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has that really makes its special is a captivating protagonist. I'm not talking about Mikael Blomkvist. Michael Nyqvist plays Blomkvist as a bit of a sad sack. He's a good investigator, digging through piles of photos and seeking out decades-old witnesses. (This is an improvement over the book, where he's also irresistible to woman for some reason.) Yet he comes off as hopelessly dorky when compared to Lisbeth Salander. It's not her hacking abilities, which are basically magic, that make her so compelling. Lisbeth is a tiny girl with a troubled past, capable of being physically taken advantage of by anyone. Yet Lisbeth Salander doesn't give up. She gets even, usually in the most brutal way possible. She wails on a guy with a five-iron, in a key scene. And don't ask what she does to the man who assaulted her. Her practically monosyllabic personality also hides a secret pain, an intense vulnerability that she's afraid to show anyone even if it's always evident. In other words: She's exactly the kind of woman male readers become fascinated by. Noomi Rapace is a perfect match to the character Larsson wrote.  

Something else “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has in its favor is a hell of a climax. The killer is uncovered when he captures Blomkvist and drags him down to his sterile torture chamber. It's a really exciting ending, that gets the suspense boiling and introduces a truly frightening villain. Niels Arden Oplev directs the hell out of it, with a big car crash and lots of dramatic moments. After that corker of a climax... The movie goes on for another half-hour. This is actually an improvement over the book's belabored denouncement, as the adaptation clips through the laundry list of subplots that needed wrapping up. (A longer television mini-series version of the film, put together in 2010, presumably re-instates many of these scenes and digressions.) Still, it really feels like a movie like this didn't need to be nearly three hours long, the same way the source novel didn't need to be eight hundred some pages.

Still, flaws and all, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” became a lit-world phenomenon for a reason. It's a compelling mystery with a fantastically intriguing female lead. No wonder she got title billing in the English translation. (The dragon tattoo doesn't have much to do with it, despite the space it takes up on the marquee.) It's stylishly directed and has enough memorable sequences to make any extra investment worthwhile. As I said, whether you can tolerate dead and abused women being used as sacrificial plot points in a pulpy mystery will determine a lot of your opinion. I'm not really okay with that but I still think the positive outweighs the negative here. [7/10]