Two nights ago I received free tickets for a screening of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I had finished reading this book about two weeks ago, and am looking forward to the next two books.Stieg Larsson wrote the trilogy and then died. These are the three and have become international bestsellers. The movie, which came out last year has had lots of hype, but has its drawbacks. The main one being it’s in Swedish!
In recent years, a lazy public wants its movies in English, or at least dubbed in. In days of old, when there were art houses around, we had subtitles, coffee served in the lobby and art on the walls!
Critics everywhere have been saying this is a good or even great film, but there will surly be an English/Hollywood version which will be a big hit.
Rolling Stone reviews said:
This dynamite thriller shivers with suspense. So if you ignore The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (from the global bestseller by the late Stieg Larsson) because it's in Swedish with English subtitles, you probably deserve the remake Hollywood will surely screw up.) Better to just go with the twisty flow as pierced, tattooed twenty something hacker Lisbeth Salander (a dazzling Noomi Rapace in a star-making performance) teams up with middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomqvist (the excellent Michael Nyqvist) to unearth secrets in the family of an industrialist who thinks his niece was murdered 40 years ago. Homicide is just the tip of this Nordic iceberg, which finds Lisbeth and Mikael buried in perversities that would floor the Marquis de Sade. Lisbeth's revenge on her abusive guardian (Peter Andersson) is graphic enough to freeze your blood. No fair revealing more, except to say that Danish director Niels Arden Oplev fits the puzzle pieces together like a grandmaster of the mystery game. Larsson followed Tattoo with two more posthumously published bestsellers, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (both shot for Swedish TV). But Tattoo is the only one directed by Oplev, whose gift for ratcheting up tension and deepening character makes him a talent to watch. His haunting and hypnotic movie gets under your skin.
This dynamite thriller shivers with suspense. So if you ignore The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (from the global bestseller by the late Stieg Larsson) because it's in Swedish with English subtitles, you probably deserve the remake Hollywood will surely screw up.) Better to just go with the twisty flow as pierced, tattooed twenty something hacker Lisbeth Salander (a dazzling Noomi Rapace in a star-making performance) teams up with middle-aged journalist Mikael Blomqvist (the excellent Michael Nyqvist) to unearth secrets in the family of an industrialist who thinks his niece was murdered 40 years ago. Homicide is just the tip of this Nordic iceberg, which finds Lisbeth and Mikael buried in perversities that would floor the Marquis de Sade. Lisbeth's revenge on her abusive guardian (Peter Andersson) is graphic enough to freeze your blood. No fair revealing more, except to say that Danish director Niels Arden Oplev fits the puzzle pieces together like a grandmaster of the mystery game. Larsson followed Tattoo with two more posthumously published bestsellers, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest (both shot for Swedish TV). But Tattoo is the only one directed by Oplev, whose gift for ratcheting up tension and deepening character makes him a talent to watch. His haunting and hypnotic movie gets under your skin.
This was a 850 some page book, with lots of difficult Swedish names to try and keep straight. However, it is a great film, a great book and a difficult film to watch.
There are some difficult scenes to watch, but it moves. The film is 152 minutes long and I never noticed it. It leaves out parts of this very long book but it captures the very essence of the book.
This is one to watch! They have already postponed the opening here, so I have no idea if anyone will ever see it in Hamilton!
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