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| Danish poster for Niels Arden Oplev's Mænd Der Hader Kvinder [Men Who Hate Women] |
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was a movie event a few years back; the first adaptation in Swede Stieg Larsson's bestselling thriller Millennium trilogy, the first movie (and the following two) were anticipated immensely in the Scandinavian countries especially, where the books had been ripped from the bookshelves since their publication in 2005. It was seen by 6 mil. in cinemas in Scandinavia before being sold to 25 countries outside Scandinavia.
And the reason, happily, is also that Dragon Tattoo is a very good thriller.
It is about a radical journalist, Blomkvist, who is readying himself for some jail time by taking a lucrative job for the head of a large, Swedish corporation. The job is to find the man's niece, who he believes was killed when she vanished 40 years earlier. To do the job, Blomkvist gets assistance and eventually shares an intimate bond with the young hacker outcast Lisbeth Salander.
The story is always wired with a kind of electric current so that you're always sure that it is moving forward, - which is essential for a suspense-filled thriller like this one. For a long time, the two protagonists' lives have not cross, and the case doesn't offer visceral suspense yet. - The filmmakers' solution is to delve into the Salander character, who is familiar with violence and has a dismal relation to her sadistic legal guardian. In the (quite gruesome) storyline, her own possible sadism is also touched upon, - something that becomes a powerful theme in the rest of the film: Sadism and punishment and the line between the two, which can be very thin indeed.
Dragon Tattoo has several nice touches, and some of my favorite parts of it have to do with its look. It gets its distinctive, very right (for the type of movie) look very right several times; especially I relish the scene when employer Vanger introduces some of his family members, all more or less vile human reptiles, and tells Blomkvist that they are all suspects. It is classical thriller/whodunnit-establishment, but with the modern, sleek look in Dragon Tattoo that little scene becomes quite memorable. Locations, visual design and casting are spot-on, as is filming and the effective thriller score by Jacob Groth (Headhunters (2009)).
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| Sven-Bertil Taube and Michael Nyqvist in a scene with the fine look of Niels Arden Oplev's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo |
The details:
The investigation of the old possible murder case quickly turns into a hunt for a serial killer with dark and disturbing ramifications and pictures along the way. Fans of David Fincher's Se7en (1995) can see one of the best new entries in the genre since the modern thriller classic here. - Fincher was also the man for the American remake, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011), but for anyone who do not immediately get a rash from hearing a foreign tongue spoken, that film is surely absolutely redundant.
The strong pole that truly makes our attention stick to the lengthy Dragon Tattoo is the Salander-character, who we delve into and try to discover along with Blomkvist. She is a fascinating and full character, - intriguing and someone we do not feel that we are done with yet, - which is pivotal for the interest in the two remaining films. Most who see Dragon Tattoo will be interested in the two next chapters. Noomi Rapace (Passion (2012)) plays the strong, antisocial part perfectly believable, and she broke through to international stardom as a result. Michael Nyqvist (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)), who plays the inarguable less interesting Blomkvist, also does well and has gotten work out of the trilogy as well, but his character is just less of a smash.
Dragon Tattoo is not a perfect film, and its main problem is that it's too lengthy. Bountiful shots of computer screens and smoking could easily have been reduced, and the ending is also a bit self-indulgent in length. Still, it is solid storytelling, visually a treat (and wonderfully bereft of Dogme-like hand-held cameras) and a very good thriller.
The director is Danish Niels Arden Oplev (Fukssvansen (2001)), who got to do Dead Man Down (2013) in Hollywood because of Dragon Tattoo, - and failed miserably. He is working on a Danish film now, Kapgang. Lets see if he ever returns to the other end of the big pond again.
Related posts:
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
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| International poster for the film with the international title, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo |
Watch the exciting - and hyperbolic - international thriller trailer here
Budget: 13 mil. $
Box office: 104.3 mil. $
= Huge hit
What do you think of this film and the following two?
If you've also seen Fincher's American remake, how do you feel about that in comparison to the original?
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