Stieg Larsson is a marvelous story-teller who also was a popular, crusading left-wing journalist. His sudden death in 2004 at age 50 precluded his opportunity to see or know how successful, famous and wealthy he was about to become. His "Millenium Trilogy" ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," originally titled in Swedish, "Men Who Hate Women;" "The Girl Who Played With Fire;" "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest") is a huge, complicated, detailed story, filled with sex and violence, but also with murder, relationships, politics, banking, big business, corruption in high places and everything else to make the nerve endings quiver. A long-time Stockholm reporter, Larsson died of a heart attack not long after he had delivered the mammoth manuscript.
The first film, the Swedish-made "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," opens here today and it's a powerful, gripping, exceptional movie that remains fascinating through its 2 1/2 hours. Larsson fans may be slightly disappointed because as in any adaptation from page to screen, certain story points have to be eliminated in the interest of time. Non-readers, of course, will not know what they are missing.
Niels Arden Oplev directs smoothly, focusing on the novel's two main characters, the Goth-style computer hacker Lisabeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), violent, angry and volatile, and almost-disgraced investigative reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist). She's young, wiry, a victim of court-appointed guardians who made her life a hell. He's older, more secure, but emotionally threatened by being found guilty of libel. He's waiting for his six-month jail sentence to begin when he is contacted by an extremely wealthy man tortured by the fact that his daughter disappeared 40 years earlier without a trace. It's a locked-room style disappearance–no apparent exit exists–but still she vanished, and every year since he has received a floral gift on the anniversary. He's sure these come from a vengeful, sadistic killer, and Blomkvist agrees to help. Salander, seeking her own revenge, helps him.
The acting is solid throughout the huge cast and the action is rapid. Again, 2 1/2 hours but with hardly a pause in the action. Those who know the book may be upset at then short shrift given Erika Berger, a major part of the book's major sub-plot, which hardly shows up in the film. It bothered me, too, but to flesh out that role probably would have made the movie last 4 1/2 hours. I eagerly await the next one; I less eagerly await a Hollywood version, supposedly in the works but a long way off.
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," opening today at the Plaza Frontenac
–Joe