Also, Michael Nyqvist passed away three months ago from cancer, at the ripe old age of 56. This seems like a fitting tribute to some of his finest work.
Warning - Graphic content and spoilers! Possibly NSFW.
There's occasional nudity in the movies, nothing too explicit, mind you... but there's also brutally unflinching depictions of rape and sexual coercion. And violence. Lots of it, particularly in the second movie. Not for the weak of stomach.Also, I don't own any of the screenshots. These are just here for educational purposes.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was released in 2009 as part of a trilogy. Pieces of the sequel are shown in this movie in flashback sequences, something I consider a really nice touch. The most graphic depictions of rape are in this movie, though the sequels certainly hold their own in this regard.
The Premise
As in the novel, Mikael Blomkvist is in trouble for defaming a businessman named Wennerström. Henrik Vanger hires Blomkvist to solve the mystery of his missing grand-niece Harriet. Lisbeth Salander, who was the private investigator and god-awesome computer hacker hired by Vanger to check out Mikael, joins forces with Mikael to solve this mystery.The Characters
Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander. We see her as sharp and kind of impatient at the beginning while delivering the report to Dragan and Dirch, but not overtly hostile. Definitely cold. And then there's another side to her as she fights like a cornered wolverine, and the cold competence in which she pulls off her revenge on Nils Bjurman. Rapace nails this character - especially in the dangerous, prickly don't-fuck-with-me aspects. You get the sense that this is a woman who has no qualms against hurting, or even killing, someone if she thinks that person deserves to be killed. That, in a nutshell, is Lisbeth Salander.Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist. Nyqvists's understated portrayal of Mikael Blomkvist stood out for me here. He didn't ham it up at every opportunity - no, he mostly stayed deadpan with a few facial tics to portray befuddlement, dismay, happiness and contrition, along with a whole host of other emotions. This is a guy who acts with his eyes, and it's amazing.
Lena Endre as Erika Berger. Could be just me, but I don't think Endre shone in this role. She had this perpetually worried and frazzled look, which simply didn't gel with the image I had mentally of Erika Berger as a cool professional.
Peter Andersson as Nils Bjurman. Bjurman is supposed to be both sleazy and creepy while appearing respectable. Andersson does a competent job of this, but the real icing on the cake are the scenes where Lisbeth exacts her revenge and he realizes he picked the wrong girl to fuck with.
Sven-Bertil Taube as Henrik Vanger. Taube delivers a believable portrayal of a man haunted by a decades-old mystery, and a tough old coot who refuses t die till he's done everything he could to solve it. Near the end, when Henrik is finally reunited with Harriet, it's a tearjerking performance from the man.
Ingvar Hirdwall as Dirch Frode. Fair. This isn't a very demanding role and all Hirdwall has to do is appear loyal, dedicated and competent.
Peter Haber as Martin Vanger. Haber's Martin Vanger comes off as mild-mannered and jovial, up to the point he reveals himself as a psycho killer. To be honest, this really didn't do it for me. Something was off. Somehow he didn't seem very scary.
Ewa Fröling as Harriet Vanger. Julia Sporre plays the young version in flashbacks. We don't see much of Fröling until the end, but her scene with Henrik is fantastic.
Marika Lagercrantz as Cecelia Vanger. The film attempts to show her in a suspicious light, but there's never enough attention on her at any time and it all kind of falls flat. Fun fact: she's the sister of David Lagercrantz, author of The Girl In The Spider's Web!
Annika Hallin as Annika Gianninni. We don't see much of her this film. It could be a result of me having read the books, but she comes off as compassionate and intelligent at the same time.
Tomas Köhler as Plague. We don't see much of him either. He's a one-scene wonder here. But if you've read the book, what we do see of him is awesome. It's like watching the legendary Kraken in its lair!
Michalis Koutsogiannakis as Dragan Armansky. We don't see much of him in this movie, though he plays a significant role in the novel. The actor looks like a hawk-eyed, intelligent individual, which I suppose helps in portraying the character.
Sofia Ledarp as Malin Eriksson. A very minor role here. She basically occupies space around The Millennium's office.
Jacob Ericksson as Christer Malm. Same as Malin Eriksson, though the deadpan, utterly straight-laced portrayal of the character is noteworthy.
The Mood
Milton Security. Clean and classy.
The Millennium office. Messy, but cosy.
Plague's home. A dark, dank mess. We get only glimpses of Plague here, and it eerily resembles viewing a monster in his lair. A hairy, bespectacled monster.
Martin Vanger's basement. Surprisingly clean and bright.
What I liked
At the opening credits, those shots of Lisbeth, in her hoodie and jeans, making her way to the office in various shots with different backgrounds, from the back. With the soundtrack playing, it's just very cool. (No, it's not because Rapace has a nice ass, perv)
The shots of Lisbeth doing her thing on the computer, with multiple windows and documents, is realistic enough. Nothing extremely fancy, but shots that suggest a certain competence without overkill, not like the overly CGI-ed shit they pull these days.
The movie has Mikael busy teaching his niece how to make meatballs, and when Dirch Frode calls, she picks up the call and holds the phone to her uncle's ear. It's not in the book, but it was pretty cute.
Milton Security's logo. It's just somehow very clean and fitting.
The scenes between Nils Bjurman and Lisbeth Salander - specifically his sexual harrassment, the rape, and her eventual revenge. It was hard to watch, but I have to admit it was very well done. Got the point across without belaboring or sensationalizing it. By that time, Lisbeth had been established as a badass, and having to watch this happened to her, resonated with me, the viewer.
The rape - everything, from the sudden escalation of violence, to Lisbeth limping home afterwards, to the calming cigarette, had me riveted.
The revenge - how Bjurman gets his comeuppance at the hands of Lisbeth is nothing short of awesome in the novel, but seeing it come to life on film is another thing altogether. Both actors do an amazing job. Lisbeth's clinical coldness, Bjurman's befuddlement followed by fear and agony - all of it positively emenates from the actors. And again, the film gets the most mileage out of the scene without lingering overlong.
Another of my favorite moments from the novel is nicely reproduced on screen. Mikael barges into Lisbeth's apartment after she's just had a one-night stand with Miriam Wu, and her expression is delicious to watch as he calmly produces breakfast and coffee.
In the book, Mikael's daughter gives him the inspiration to check the bible for clues. Here, it's Lisbeth herself who does it. Cuts another character out, making the entire production even leaner.
Near the end, when Lisbeth is watching Martin Vanger go up in flames, there's a nice flashback sequence that will play into the sequel of this movie.
The scene where Henrik is reunited with Harriet is actually pretty cool too. The actors playing Henrik and Harriet had only supporting parts, but boy did they wring every emotional note out of that few minutes of screen time.
In the novel, there was a long involved sequence where Lisbeth utilizes her hacker skills to bring Wennerström down. It was nice but a little anti-climatic. So I was pleasantly surprised when the film breezed through this one.
What I didn't
In the book, it's Mikael who broaches the idea of temporarily leaving The Millennium. In the movie, they try to make Janne look even more like a bad guy by having him bring it up. Seriously?The fast-forward nature of Mikael's investigation. I get that it's really long and boring in the book, but they basically cut out almost everything.
Mikael's inspiration to check the bible for clues does not come from his daughter in the film. Damn. It would have been a nice touch.
Lisbeth seducing Mikael. I don't have a problem with the two of them having sex - I just think it happened way too fast in the film, and with no real buildup and no apparent reason. Even actors of the caliber of Nyqvist and Rapace couldn't make that realistic.
Martin Vanger sneak attacks Mikael from behind, which leads leads to the basement torture scene. I prefered the novel's version, where Mikael ends up in Martin's house and gets forced into the basment at gunpoint. It was somehow more sinister.
They left out the part where Lisbeth caught Mikael and Erika together at the end, which I felt was pretty important in defining their relationship.
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