The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Never underestimate the value of a good story. This is probably the key lesson to learn from the incredible success of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, a twenty-first century publishing phenomenon that has so far shifted over 25m copies of its three books and helped launch the current vogue for Scandanvian crime fiction (see also Wallander). Its instant success in the author’s native Sweden led to this adaptation of the first book for cinemas, with parts two and three filmed for television soon after using the same cast. Following the film’s rapid financial success the follow-ups were given a theatrical release, while an American remake is currently in production. All of which is perhaps a little surprising for a book from a first-time novelist whose original title is the somewhat blunt Men Who Hate Women.



Watching this original adaptation, it becomes clear that the author has not radically re-invented the whodunit genre; rather its story is simply allowed to slowly and credibly grow, drawing the viewer in to its dark two-pronged tale of familial intrigue and corporate corruption. The heart and soul of the piece is the relationship between the two central characters, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist). Blomkvist is nominally the hero - a publicly disgraced journalist on the brink of going to prison after losing a libel case. Unable to prove his innocence and awaiting the start of his sentence, he agrees to take on a private investigative assignment looking in to the decades-old disappearance of the great-niece of a wealthy but frail businessman, Henrik Vanger. Needless to say, there is more to the case than meets the eye. Nyqvist is excellent as the quietly determined everyman who unwittingly gets in over his head.

But it is Lisbeth who turns out to be the star of the show. A proficient computer hacker and professional snooper with an extremely traumatic past, she follows Blomkvist’s trial and subsequent work with great interest and slowly becomes involved with both case and investigator. Rapace is simply terrific as the girl of the title: a young woman who has every reason to hate the opposite sex (which we learn about through flashbacks to her childhood) and has learned to deal with her past by withdrawing in to an emotional spiky shell and adopting a fearsome goth appearance. Having comprehensively dealt with her recently appointed guardian (whose designs on her become clear in a grim rape sequence), Lisbeth makes her own breakthrough in Blomkvist’s investigation, and the unlikely couple become a formidable, if unconventional, team. Her almost total unwillingness to communicate with anyone else makes the growing bond of trust and respect between the two rather touching.



Their tentative relationship sharply contrasts with the warped Vanger family history that draws both in ever deeper. Larsson’s plot is a brilliantly constructed page-turner, and this is carried over in to the film. Most of Henrik’s extended family resent the case being dug up yet again by the old man, and see Blomkvist’s presence as a threat to their way of life. But the journalist is used to being threatened after rustling feathers and refuses to give up; when his life becomes endangered he knows he’s getting close to the truth, and the suspense escalates from there. If one had to level a criticism at the film, it would be that there is almost too much plot stuffed in to its fairly hefty running time. Keeping track of the various different members of the family, and their possible motives for getting rid of the Vanger girl, becomes increasingly difficult. Crucially, Lisbeth and Blomkvist's separate story threads are perfectly balanced (they don't meet until a good way in to the story) and when they finally come together one can sense the pace moving up a gear.

Director Niels Arden Oplev puts the starkly beautiful snowy landscapes of Sweden to good use, mirroring both the frigid feelings within the Vanger family as well as that of Lisbeth herself – a woman who has barely felt the warmth of human love. When the truth is revealed and the culprit identified, warmth does finally creep in to the film in unexpected ways, leading to a tense and very emotional conclusion. The limited action sequences on display are refreshingly restrained, with barely a car chase in sight, but remain, like the film as a whole, grippingly suspenseful. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is without doubt one of the best thrillers in recent years; one can only regard the forthcoming remake with equal parts pity and apprehension.

Follow these links to read Ian's reviews of the sequels: The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest.

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