The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Film Review

So I loved the book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and was excited when the Swedish film finally came to America. I went to see it this Sunday. (That's right, I celebrated Independence Day by seeing a foreign film). I really enjoyed the film and felt it captured the important essence of the book. Also, despite having to condense such a long and complicated novel, I think the movie was very coherent while still staying true to the story. The only changes I noticed were clearly for time and I think they were done artfully. Visually, it was very close to what I imagined in my head, which is always what you want from these types of adaptations.

I was trying to explain to a friend why I was glad to see the original Swedish film and not an American adaptation, but I had to eventually confess that it wasn't an objective thing. I just picture the characters as being Swedish and the story as taking place in Sweden. In the book it's more important, but in the movie it's just an ambiance.

I would recommend reading the book first just because it's brilliant, but if you do just see the film (and do see it if you can!) the only warning I give are there are some pretty violent rape scenes. If you're really sensitive to that sort of thing you may want to steer clear of both book and film. But I think that would be a shame because in the end it's a very empowering story with beautiful and vibrant characters.

Spoilers!

So I did love how Blomkvist slept with three different women through the course of the book but I understood why they would take that out. Not only does it save time but it also helps focus his relationship with Lisbeth. In the book you have time to understand that regardless of sleeping around, Blomkvist does genuinely respect and care for the women he's with. But in the film that would be tough to get across.