The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Cast: Mikael Nyqvist, Sven-Bertil Taube and Noomi Rapace
DVD release: 2 September 2010
Rated: MA 15+

It’s not necessarily the case that an adaption of a good novel makes a great film; in fact if the book is as popular as The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo audiences will inevitably be critical. Fortunately this Danish/Swedish co-production brings the text to life in a gripping movie and is stoically faithful to the author’s intentions. The Millennium series of three best-selling novels published after Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s death have become something of a phenomena. They represent the War and Peace of crime thrillers (nearly 600 pages each) with a touch of Agatha Christie and Nordic sexual diversions. This is the first of the series.

Disgraced Millennium journalist Mikael ‘Kalle’ Blomquist (Mikael Nyqvist) is hired by reclusive corporate head Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube) to investigate the disappearance of his great niece Harriet some 40 years earlier. Henry harbours the suspicion that someone in the Vanger family may have murdered her. The dysfunctional Vanger clan all live on a bleak, remote island and could do a casting call for 'Wuthering Heights'.

Mikael gradually uncovers a series of grisly murders which may be linked to the disappearance. He’s given considerable aid by antisocial young punk computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace), who takes up the case while dealing with her own problems of a abused childhood and a predatory guardian. Improbable collaborators Mikael and Lisbeth are drawn into a web of evil including closet Nazis and torture chambers. The feisty Lisbeth saves the day in more ways than one.

Some of the novel’s appeal lies in its extraordinary heroine, the memorable character of Lisbeth Salander. She's a weird Goth combination of Pippi Longstocking and Sherlock Holmes wreaking brutal revenge on men who have wronged her. In the novel, Salander's a skinny 4'6" punk, tattooed and pierced, but highly intelligent with computer hacking mastery and a photographic memory; great at martial arts but lacking any social skills. Larsson describes Lisbeth – "as if she had just emerged from a week-long orgy with a gang of hard rockers". No doubt a major problem was to find someone who could take the part convincingly. Noomi Rapace is a good choice as the head-kicking super-babe; perhaps not as fully realized as in the book, but she grabs the vibrant essence of the character with her smouldering angst bursting into sudden action.

Mikael Nyqvist as Blomquist plays a suitably gloomy, craggy and tenacious protagonist. Direction by Niels Arden Oplev (World's Apart) confidently keeps the tension despite a marathon running time. Bursts of sudden - often sadistic - violence brings you to the edge of your seat. The rape scene is as harrowing as any on the screen, and harks back to Ingmar Bergman’s Virgin Spring. Suspense is steadily built by the dramatic ominous chords on the soundtrack, and the crisp clean photography dwelling on the isolation and the chilling landscapes. Production values are excellent.

Scripters Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg manage to give clarity to the plot lines despite it being a convoluted story with many characters. The film actually seems more dramatic than the book, which tends to be wordy. Subtitles might put some fans off - which is a great pity because it's going to be hard to beat this realisation and there's talk of an American version being shot in the near future. I suspect the Swedish may have a closer affinity to the story while no doubt the Hollywood adaption will be slick, star-studded and shorter.

The Swedish film company Yellow Bird has completed the second and third in the series The Girl Who Played With Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Both were originally made for TV but after the success of their first film they'll be edited for cinema release.

John Bale