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.

I read this book last month but hadn't had the chance to review it. Right now I'm listening to The Girl Who Played With Fire on audio. But I'll just focus on the first book for this review.

Summary:

Mikael Blomkvist, a Swedish reporter, stumbles into the secrets of a corrupt financier, but his evidence falls through, and he's convicted of libel. Facing the ruin of his career, Blomvkist is talked into humoring an old company mogul by investigating a long cold case involving the disappearance of the old man's niece, Harriet Vagner. At first Blomkvist does not expect to find anything, but his investigation of the Vagner family leads to growing suspicion of dark secrets. Along the way, he enlists the help of an enigmatic expert investigator, Lisbeth Salander. Together they find information that puts them on the trail of a serial killer.

Overview:

I love this book. The beginning was admittedly a bit slow because there was a lot of talk of corporate financial things that went over my head a little. The Swedish names were also a bit overwhelming at frst in a tongue-twistery sort of way. I also had to look up the references to Swedish literature, even Pipi Longstocking because I knew the name but nothing about the character. But once I got past that, I really enjoyed it. The characters are so real, and in spite of the cultural divide, I found myself able to personally relate to many of them, particularly Blomvkist. Salander is harder for me to relate to personally. Not just because she's a computer expert, but also her antisocial nature. This is a trilogy so you don't really understand Salander by the end and you're not supposed to. But I still cheered for her throughout. Larsson does a beautiful job of making Salander into a real life avenging angel. She sees the wrongs in the world and is determined to personally right them herself. He also does a good job of creating reprehensible but believable villains that you root strongly for the heroes.

Film

I was very excited to see a trailer for the Swedish movie up on IMDB the other day. I had known there was a Swedish version, but it hadn't been officially released in English yet. You could downlooad an English version illegally off the internet (ironically fitting for Salander's character) but you couldn't buy a real copy! Now finally, it looks like I'll be able to see it either dubbed or subtitled (impossible to know which they're planning. Personally, I hope it's subtitled.)

This isn't the official US trailer; it's the original Swedish trailer, but I liked it better, and it's subtitled in English, so you can enjoy and understand! :)



Rating

I would give this book 10/10 stars: * * * * * * * * * *

Book Club

This is where I discuss my thoughts on specific plot points in the book so scoot if you haven't read it.

I'm serious; this is a really good mystery and I don't want to ruin it. Go read it.

So the characters themselves are often a mystery. I think Salander wouldn't have so much trouble if she would just trust authority. The rape scene was really difficult for me to read and I've read plenty of really violent things without blinking. I wanted her to either turn that guy in to the police or kill him. But I have to confess I was very satisfied with what she did to him. I just didn't feel it was permanant enough and wished she had simply killed him. I guess I sound rather murderous, but it's just a literary fact that villains you don't kill always come back. He's also such a nasty person (though the tattoo she gave him helps to prevent him troubling other women). But it makes sense that Salander would feel she needed him to help to get the declaration of her incompetence revoked.

Blomvkist, in my opinion, is exactly the opposite of Salander. He's not exactly an everyman, but his quirks are understandable and even lovable. He might sleep around, but he respects all the women he's with. He manages to be sexually open while still being a very stable and responsible person. It also wasn't a mystery to me why he got propositioned by women so often. It was a believable mix of luck and his likable personality. I sincerely felt sorry for him when he fell out of favor with Salander in the end because I really liked them as a couple. But it's possibly the first time when I'm not angry at either party. Salander knew about Blomvkist's relationship with Erika Berger. He never lied to her about that, and Salander was the one who came onto him. All the same, I can see where, while Salander may have consciously understood about his running affair with Berger, confronting it when she's realized she's in love with him was much harder. And Salander isn't the type to talk those type of things out.

I thought that Harriet was alive the whole time. I didn't think anyone else would send the flowers (although the wall of flowers still always gave me a chill). But her owning a ranch in Australia did seem a bit out there. Still, the characters were so real that even some of the more bizarre happenings seemed credible. Some of the more complicated clues in Harriet's case also swished right over my head, but I was so into the drama by then that it didn't really matter to me.